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Zachariah Chandler: 

AN OUTLINE SKETCH 

OF 

His Life and Public Services. 

BY 

THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER 
FKOM 

JAMES G. BLAIKE, OF MAINE, 



O iron nerve to true occasion true, 
O fall'n at length that tower of strength 
Which stood four - square to all the winds that blew 1 

—Tennyson. 



SULi^h.s.J 



DETROIT: 

THE POST AND TRIBUNE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 

R. D. S. TYLER & CO., DETROIT. TYLER & CO., CHICAGO, 

CnARLES DREW, NEW YORK. WM. H. THOMPSO.V <fe CO., BOSTON. 

J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAPOLIS. 

1880. 






Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1879, by 

THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE. 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 






Electrotyped by 
A. W. Hadoin, Detroit. 



PRicss of 

WKKillTSON A CO. 
CINCINNATI, O. 



TO 

THE KEPUBLICATsTS OF MICHIGAN, 

Who so Long Upheld, and Who were Implicitly Trusted by, 

ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 

THIS RECORD OF HIS LIFE IS 

DEDICATED. 



'T is stated elsewhere that this work is written " By The 
Detroit Post and Tribune." Unusual as this form of 
'i||l announcement is on the title-pages of books, there cer- 
tainly may be an authorial as well as an editorial impersonality; 
in this case the phrase succinctly expresses the fact, namely, that 
the volume represents the joint labors of the statf of The Post 
AND Tribune, alike in the collection and the treatment of its 
materiaL 

"While its preparation has been almost wholly a matter of 
original research, such use as was necessary has been made of his- 
torical data contained in '' The Centennial History of Bedford, 
N. PI.," published in 1851, in Horace Greeley's "-American Con- 
flict," and in Henry Wilson's '' History of the Rise and Fall of 
the Slave Power." 

Needed information has been furnished by those intimately 
connected with Mr. Chandler, but the work has not been sub- 
mitted to their revision, and they are not responsible for the 
form of the narrative, nor for the personal estimate it embodies. 

This book presents a sketch of the life and the public 
services of a remarkable man. It has been Mn-itten from the 
standpoint of political sympathy, and with the hope of deepen- 
ing the wholesome influences so powerfully exerted upon public 
sentiment in his lifetime by Zachariah Chandler. The aim 
has been to make it accurate in statement, and to see that its 
chapters should fairly draw, in outline at least, the picture of 
the career of a genuine leader of men. 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



To THE Editors of The Post and Tribune : 

I AM unable to give any personal oi' special incidents in the 
life of Mr. Chandler not open to his biographers from other 
sources. I was not so intimate in my relations with him as 
were some others, nor did I know him better than many others 
who like myself were associated with him in public life for a 
long period. I knew him well, however, both on the side ot 
his private life and his pubHc life, and in every phase he was a 
man of strong character. 

The time in which a man lives, and the circumstances by 
which he is surrounded, control his fate even more largely than 
his personal and inherent qualities. Mr. Chandler was fortunate 
in the time of his removal to the West, fortunate in the era 
which brought him into public life. When he became a citizen 
of Michigan the days of hard pioneer life were ending, extensive 
cultivation of the soil had begun, products for shipment were 
large and rapidly increasing. Facilities for transportation were 
already great. The Eric Canal had been open for several years, 
and steamers had multiplied on the Great Lakes. Everything was 
in readiness for a strong-minded, energetic, competent man of 
business, and Mr. Chandler had the good fortune to settle in 
Detroit at the precise point of time when the elements of sue- 



viii. INTRODUCTOKY LETTER. 

cess were within ]iis grasp. For a quarter of a century there- 
after his career was tliat of a business man intensely devoted to 
liis private interests, and participating in public affairs only as 
an incident and with no effort to secure advancement. The 
result of this steady devotion to business was that Mr. Chandler 
found himself at forty -four years of age possessed of a large 
property, constantly and ra])idly increasing in value. 

Coincident with this condition in his financial fortunes came 
a crisis in the political affairs of the country, involving the class 
of questions which took deep hold on the mind and the heart 
of Mr. Chandler. The curbing of the slave power, the assertion 
and maintenance of freedom on free soil, undying devotion to 
the Union of the States, and the bold defense of the rights of the 
citizen — these were the issues which in various ])hases absorbed 
the public mind from the repeal of the Missouri conqnomise 
in 1S54 down to the close of Mr. Chandler's life. And on all 
the issues presented for consideration for twenty - live years Mr. 
Chandler never halted, never wearied, never grew timid, never 
was willing to compromise. On these great questions he became 
the leader of Michigan, and Michigan kept Mr. Chandler at the 

V 

front during the ])roli)iiged struggle which has wrought such 
mighty changes in the history of the American ])eoj)le. 

It is a noteworthy fact, not infrecpiently adverted to. that the 
political opinions of Michigan both as Territory and State, ior a 
])eriod of sixty years, were represented, and indeed in no small 
degree formed, by two men of New Hampshire birth. From 
1819 to 1854 General Cass was the accepted political leader of 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. ix 

Michigan, and only once in all that loner period of thirty -five 
years did her people fail to follow him. That was in 1840, 
when the old pioneers and the soldiers of 1812 — generally the 
friends of Cass — refused his leadership, and voted for the older 
pioneer and the more illustrious chieftain, William Henry Har- 
rison. From lS5-t till Mr. Chandler's death the dominant 
opinion of Michigan was with him ; and her people followed 
him, trusted him, believed in him. During that quarter of a 
century the population of the State more than trebled in num- 
ber, but the strength of Chandler with the newcomers seemed 
as great as with tlie older population with, whom he had begun 
the struggle of life in the Territory of Michigan. The old men 
stood firmly by him in the faith and confidence of an ancient 
friendship, and the young men followed with an enthusiasm 
which grew into affection, and with an affection which ripened 
into reverence. 

Mr. Chandler's life in AVashington, apart from his public 
service, was a notable event in the history of the capital. His 
wealth enabled him to l)e generous and hospitable, and his 
elegant mansion was a center of attraction for many years. Nor 
were the guests confined to one party. Mr. Chandler was per- 
sonally popular with his political opponents, and the leading men 
of the Democratic party often sat at his table and forgot in the 
genial host, and th? frank, sincere man, all the bitterness that 
might have come from conflict in the partisan arena. 

It is fitting that Mr. Chandler's life be written. It is due, 
first of all, to his memory. It is due to those who come after 



X INTKODUCTORY L?:TTER. 

him. It is due to the great State whose Senator he was, wliose 
interests he served, whose honor he upheld. I am glad the work 
is coniuiitted to competent friends, who can discriminate between 
honest approval and inconsiderate praise, and wlio with strict 
adherence to truth can find in liis career so inuch that is lionor- 
able, so much that is admirable, so little that is censurable, and 
nothing that is mean. 

Yery sincerely yours, 

JAMES G. BLAINE. 

"Washington, February 15, 1880. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Birthplace and Ancestry in New England. 

PAGE. 

The town of Bedford, K H. — King Phillip's War — Land grants to sur- 
viving soldiers — Souhegan - East — Grant of a charter — Naming the 
town — The early settlers — The thirst for civil and religious liberty 
— Records of the church — The thrift of the people — Native humor — 
A patriotic record — Services in three wars 19 



CHAPTER II. 
Parentage and Childhood. 

The Chandlers of New England — The first Zechariah and his possessions 

— Settlement in the intervale of the Merrimack — Genealogy of the 
family — Noted family connections —Prominence in church and State 
— The family residences — Birthplace of Zachariah — Inherited traits — 
A strong, self-reliant boy — His school -days — One term as teacher 

— Work on the farm — Military experience — Clerk in a store — His 
journey Westward — Affection for the old town — Some of Bedford's 
emigrants. 



CHAPTER III. 

Removal to Michigan — Mercantile! Success — Business Invest- 
ments. 

Business start in Detroit — The cholera epidemic — Caring for the sick — 
Characteristics of the young business man — Nearest approach to an 
assignment — Pushing his business — Visits to the interior — Strong 
friendships — His young clerk and successor — Commercial integrity 
and sagacity — Accumulation of property — Helping the Government 
credit — Incorruptibility as a Legislator. 44 



xii. CONTENTS. 

CPIAPTER IV. 
The Panouama of Noktuwksteun Devei.opmext. 

PAGE. 

Early explorations of the Lakes — A mission, at the Sault — Passage of 
the Strait — First settleiiieut at Detroit — Steam navigation upon the 
Lakes — Organization of the Territory — An imperial domain — Detroit 
in 1833 — Marvelous development of a great City and Slate — Statistics 
of 1879. 54 

CHAPTER V. 

The Commencement of Poijticai. Activity — Record as an Anti- 
Slaveky Wiiui. 

A conspicuous figure in politics — Lewis C ss, his career and character- 
istics — A strong contrast — Mr. Chandler as a Whig — A sinewy worker 
at the polls — The Crosswhite ca.se — Making a firm friend — Nomi- 
nation and election for Mayor — A sharp campaign — Invitation to 
Kossuth — Nominated for (^overnr)r — An energetic but unsuccessful 
canvass — First nomination for the Senate 71 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Foumation of the Republican Party. 

The Compromises of 1820 and 1350 — Annexation of Texas — Calhoun's 
farewell — Profound Northern indignation — Memorable debates in 
Congress — "Free Democrat" action in Michigan — Public antislaveiy 
meetings and private conferences — The Wiiig Convention at Kalama- 
zoo — Steps toward \mion — A stirring address — "Under the Oaks" 
at Jackson — A notable convention — Formation of the Republican 
party — A ringing platform — The first of a series of unintcrniptod 
successes — Work of Mr. Chandler in the campaign 89 

CHAPTER VII. 

The First Election to the Senate. 

"Work rn the campaign of 185(5 — The National Conventions — Aid in mak- 
ing Michigan radical — Republican success in that State — An earnest 
Senatorial canvass — ]\Ir. Chandler nominated over ]\Ir. Christiancy and 
others — His election — Comjiosition of the Thirty-fifth Congress — 
Subsequent career of his associiUes 119 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHEHN CONSPIRACY - ThE ELECTION 

OF Abkaham Lincoln. 

PAGE. 

Preparations for Disunion - Imbecility of the ^^l-'-'^^'-f ^ -^^;7J^ 
forebodings -Mr. Chandlers tirst prepared address-A vigoious and 

unanswerlble speech-The ^^^^^^^^^'^^^^^11^^^ 
raid -A warning to traitors - Denunciation of ^^f^^"-^™^; 
redl-G.ving '-satisfaction" to Southern " gentlemen "- Mr. Chandler 
not to be buUied-The Chandler. Cameron and Wade compact . . 133 

CHAPTER IX. 

SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY. 

t™veiiy-The Morrill tariff of 1861 -Modifications proposed in 1867 ^^^ 
-The priceless value of the skilled mechanic 

CHAPTER X. 

Services to Northwestern Commercial Interests ..no the 
Cause op Internal Improvements. 
The committee on Commerce as first organized -Unavaning^^ro^^ 
Mr. Chandler's first speech in the Senate - The St^ Can 1^ 
mnrovement-A defeat and significant prophecy -The woik, its co t 

OnP Ivlf of the entire amount expended by the United states lui 
— One -halt ot inc luuic ^ ^^ ni.o,^riiAr'« rhMirmanship . 

rivers and harbors appropriated durin: 



Mr. Chandler's chairmanship 



164 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE OUTBREAK OF THE ReBELLION-No COMPROMISE OF CONSTI- 

TUTioNAL Rights. 
Fi.st formal step of secession -Buchanan's ''No coerdon^^mes^^^^^^^^ 
Organization of the Southern Confederacy-Mr^ Chandle 1 
compromise -Thwarting the plots of ^f ^ J^^^^n " ^^^^ 
appointment of Secretary Stanton -Unwritten ''^'''''^^^^'%^^„,,,, _. 
elation of traitors and imbeciles-Thc proposed Peace Con, ^^_^ 

—The "blood -letter" and its justification. . • • • 



l^ 



xiv. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Commenckment ok the Civil Wak. 

PAGE. 

President Lincoln's arrival in "Washington — Mr. Chandler's advice as to 
the Cabinet — Conciliatory character of the inaugural— An illustration 
of Southern perfidy —Surrender of Fort Suniler — A Detroit meeting 

— ••But one sentiment here" — Reception of Michigan men ii^ Wash- 
ington—Visit to Fortress .Monroe — Crossing the Potomac — Proposed 
confiscation of rebel property— ' Two parties in the country, patriots 
and traitors" — Vindication of Michigan's record — An advance move- 
ment urged 201 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Co.m.mittee on the Conduct of the "War. 

Tue disaster at Ball's Bluff — A committee of inquiry proposed by Mr. 
Chandler — Orgiinization of the Committee on the Conduct of the 
"War — Opposition and subsecpient co-operation of the Administration 

— Confidential Relations with President Lincoln and Secretaries Cam- 
eroH and Stanton — Laying out work — Mr. Chandler's great speech 
against McClellan — Distrust of McClellanism in politics — The Fitz- 
John Porter case — Last work of the committee 215 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Vigorous Prosecution of the "War. 

The political reverses of 1862— The "Union movement" in ^Michigan — 
Re-election of Senator Chandler — Proposition to arm the colored 
people — The Fremont proclamation and the Hunter order — Opposi- 
tion to the colonization schemes — Influence with the Secretary of "War 

— The Trent affair — Aid to ^Michigan soldiers in the "Washington hos- 
pitals — "We must accept no compromise." 250 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Pi{esidkxtial Campaign of 1834. 

The political and military successes of 1863 — The Cleveland convention — 
Nomination of Fremont and Cochrane — Renomination of Abraham 
Lincoln — Resignation of Secretary Chase — Peace negotiations at Ni- 
agara Falls — The "Wade- Davis manifesto — Nomination of 3IcClellan 

— Mr. Chandler's conferences with the disaffected Republicans — Resig- 
nation of Postmaster - General Blair — "Withdrawal of the Fremont 
ticket — An overwhelming political triumph . 263 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI 



The Administration of Andrew Johnson — Reconstruction and 
Impeachment. 

PAGE 

Tlie Assassinatiou of President Lincoln — The War Committee meet Presi- 
dent Johnson — Revengeful disposition of tlie new Executive — Legal 
questions m reference to the trial of traitors — An important paper by 
Benjamin F. Butler — A practicable method for prosecuting Jeff. 
Davis — Change of sentiment in President Johnson — He abandons the 
party that elected him — Development of his " policy ' — Hmdrance to 
successful reconstruction — The impeachment resolutions and Irial — 
Disappointment of Mr. Chandler at the failure to convict — General 
work in the Thirty -ninth and Fortieth Congresses. ... 279 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Presidency of General Grant— The Republican Congres- 
sional Committee 

"Work in the campaign of 1868 — Mr. Chandler's re election to the Senate 

— The Fifteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights bill — Edwin M. 
Stanton's death and the fund for his family- Mr. Chandlers oppo 
sition to Southern war claims — His purchase of the Confederate 
archives — The value of these documents —Election of Senator Ferry 

— Mr. Chandler's lidelity to his friends — His denunciation of Southern 
outrages — His comparison of the two parties — His defense of Presi- 
dent Grant against Charles Sumner's attacks — The "Salary Grab" 
oppo-^ed by Senator Chandler and his colleague — The Republican Con- 
gressional Committee and its efficient work — Intimacy between 3Ir. 
Chandler and James M Edmunds — The latter's usefulness. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Maintenance of a Sound Currency and the Public Faith. 

Condition of the government credit in 1861— The first i.ssue of " green- 
backs "—Mr. Chandler's opposition to any increase in the amount- 
Ta.xalion recommended as a substitute — Opposition to the ta.\ation of 
national bonds — Arguments for payment in com of the "greenbacks" 
and bonds- Advocacy of the national bank system —The panic of 
1873 — Resistance to every measure of inflation — Mr. Chandler's 
speeches in January and February, 1874- The Resumption act. . 819 



xvi. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Sechetauy of tiir Inteuiou in tiik C.vm.Myr of President Grant. 

PAQE. 

Political reverses of 1S74 — The contest in Michigan a complicated one — 
Republican success by a narrow margin — A close Legislature — Resist- 
ance to Mr. Chandler's re-election — His pronounced success in his 
party caucus — A combination of a few Republicans with the Dem- 
ocrats elects Judge Christiancy — Like results elsewhere — }.Ir. Chand- 
ler's confidence — -'A candidate for that seat"— Letter to the Repub- 
lican members of the Legislature — A seemmg calamity proves to be 
a benefit — Appointment as Secretary of the Interior — Changes in the 
personnd, of the Department — How Alonzo Hell became Chief Clerk 
— The first blow falls — An entire room closed as a measure of "prac- 
tical reform" — Purification of the Bureau of Indian Affairs — "The 
most valuable men" suddenly dismissed — Order against the "Indian 
attorneys" — President Grant's .support — Changes in the Bureau of 
Pensions and the General Land Office — Mr. Chandler's admirable 
executive qualities recognized — Anecdotes of his Cabinet service — 
Fighting the patronage • seekers — A cowardly informer — A head to 
the Department — An investigation that failed — "Pumping a dry 
well "— Close of Mr. Chandler's term — Tributes of Secretary Schurz 
to the practical efficiency of his predecessor. 337 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Presidential Election of 187(5 — At Ho.me — The ^Iaksh 
Farm near Lansing. 

Mr. Chandler made Chairman of the National Republican Committee — 
His original confidence in the lesult — Apathy in the West — Aid to 
Ohio — The closeness of the contest apparent — Measures to snatch 
victory from the jaws of defeat — Mr. Chandler's firm attitude during 
the remainder of the contest — Its great value — Dissent from the 
"policy" of the new Administration — A Cabinet anecdote — ]\Ir. Chand- 
ler retues to private life — A visit to the Pacific coast — Other extended 
trips— The marsh farm near Lansing, Micliigan — An important ex- 
periment in the reclamation of wet lands — Mv. Chandler's "expensive 
theory"— The method of drainage explained and illustrated in detail 

— Successful results of the earlier experiments in cultivation — General 
farm equipment — Houses, barns and stock — Relaxation at the farm 

— Mr. Chandler's correspondence — The answering of every letter his 
rule — The power of his oratory — Terse sentences, Saxon words, and 
brief speeches his aim — The sincerity and honesty of the man — The 



CONTENTS. xvii. 

PAGE. 

Strength of his friendships — His hearty social qualities — His Wash- 
ington and Detroit residences descrihed — Narrow escape from a seri- 
ous-accident la 1858 — Mr Chandler's family— His domestic happiness 

— His wife and daughter his sole heirs. 356 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Michigan EMiCxioN of 1878 — Mr. Chandler's Return to 
THE Senate — "The Jeff. Davis Speech." t 

Development of "Greenback" strength iu the West — Resolute resistance 
in Michigan to the spread of financial heresy — Mr. Chandler leads the 
Republican battle — A great victory — It ;s followed by his fourth 
election to the Senate — He takes his seat in time to answer rebel 
eulogies in the Senate on Jeff. Davis — His brief and telling response 

— It strikes the chord of patriotic feeling — The popular response — 
The "extra session" of 1879— Mr. Chandler's last Congressional 

374 



speech. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



The Campaign op 1879 — Mr. Ch.\ndler's Last Days — Death and 
Funeral. 

Mr. Chandler at the front in the political contests of 1879 — He is greeted 
by a popular ovation — His name urged for the Republican presidential 
nonination in 1880- Grant his own choice — Work affects his strong 
constitution — His Chicago speech — Dead in his bed at the Grand 
Pacific Hotel on Nov. 1, 1879 1 — The national grief — Funeral and 
burial. 



APPENDIX 



ZACHARIAH CHANDLERS LAST SPEECH: Delivered in McCor- 
MicK Hall, in the City of Chicago, on October 31, 1879. 

THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN : A Me.morial Address. Deliv- 
ered IN the Fort Street Presbyteri.^n Church, Detroit, on 
November 27, 1879, by the Rev. A T. Pierson. D. D. 

2 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATION'S. 



Frontispiece. 



Fami 



Steel Poutrait of Zaciiauiaii Chandler, 

The Chandler Homestead at Bedford, N. H., 

The Birthplace of Zachariah Chandler, 

The Entry of the Birth of Zachariah Chandler i: 

Bible, 

The School House at Bkdford, N. II., 

The Chandler Block (Dctrdit) 

Detroit in 1834, 

Fac- Simile of the "Temperance Ticket" of 1853 in Michigan, 



Sketch 1)}' 



TliE First Republican State Convention — ("Under the Oaks 

Jackson, Mich., July G, 1854) 

The National Capitol at "Washington, 

The Ship Canal at the St. Clair Fl.\ts, 

Portrait of Senator Chandler in 1862, 

Portrait of the. Late James M. Edmunds, . 

The Interior Department at Washington, 

The Cabinet of President Grant — 1870-77 — (From 

Mrs. C. Adelc Fassetl ) 

The Office of the Secretary of the Interior, 

Plat of the Marsh Farm, 

The " Bio Ditch " of the Marsh Farm, 

The ]\Iain House at the Marsh Farm, 

The Lar(je Barn at the Marsh Farm, 

:Mr Chandler's Residence at Washington, 

Mr Chandler's Residence at Detroit, 

The State Capitol of Michigan, .... 

Sen.vtor Chandler Denouncing the Eulogies upon Ji 

THE Senate Chamber at 13 a. m. of .^Ioxday, March 
The Cisand Pacific Hotel at Chicago, 
Profile Bust op Zachariah Chandler — (A sketch from Leonard W 

Volk's Phister Cast), 

The Tribute of Gen. U. S. Grant (Jac- simile), 



Davis in 

1879, 



3;? 

35 

37 
39 
49 
G5 

80 

111 
127 
173 

217 
315 
311 



347 
353 
301 
;503 
305 
307 
309 
371 
377 

381 
389 



391 
393 




ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 



CHAPTER I. 




BIETHPLACE AND ANCESTKY LN NEW ENGLAND. 

N" tlie valley of the Merrimack, fifty miles northwest from 
Boston, is the New Hampshire town of Bedford. It is a 
i/^y connnunity of thrifty farms, with striking characteristics, 
and almost a century and a half of entertaining history. 
Simplicity of manners and sturdiness of character prevail among 
its people to-day, and the vigor of the stock of its original set- 
tlers, the loftiness of their traditions, and the pnritanism of its 
civilization have made it a nursery of strong men. 

King Philip's War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the IS'ew 
England provinces. The subjugation of the savages was only 
accomplished when one in twenty of the men among the col- 
onists had fallen and a like proportion of their families was 
houseless, and it left behind it what was in those days a heavy 
debt. More than half a century elapsed before there was any 
substantial recognition of the claims of the survivors of that war 
and their descendants. It was not until 1732, after numerous 
petitions and prolonged discussion, that "the Great and General 
Court of Massachusetts " granted land enough for two townships 
" to the soldiers who had served in King Philip's or the Narra- 
gansett War and to their surviving heirs-at-law." This grant was 



20 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

snl>sc(jueiitly enlarovd to seven townships, as appears from the 
following- record of proceedings in "the Great and General Conrt 
or Assend)ly ft^r His Majestie's Province of the Massachusetts 
Bay," nnder date of April 26, 1733 : 

A Petition of a Commitli'o for the Nurragivnsett Soldiers, sliowing that 
there are the number of J^ight Hundred and Forty Persons entered as olficers 
and soldiers in the late Narragansctt War, Pvaying that there may be such 
an addition of Land granted to them, as may allow a Tract of six miles 
Square to each one hundred and twenty men so admitted. 

In the House of Kei)resentatives, Read, and Ordered that the Prayer of 
the Petition be granted, and that Major Chandler, Mr. Edward Shoxc, CJol. 
Thomas Tileston, Mr. John Hobson and Mr. Samuel Chandler (or any three 
of them,) be a Committee fully authorized and empowered to survey and lay 
out five more Tracts of Land for Town.'ihips, of the Contents of Six miles 
Square eaeh, in some of the unajipropriated lands of this Province ; and that 
the said land, together with the two towns before granted, be granted and 
disposed of to the ollicers and soldiers or their lawful Representatives, as they 
are or have been allowed by this Court, being eight hundred and forty in 
number, in the whole, and in full satisfaction of the Grant formerly made 
them by the General Court, as a reward for their public service. And the 
Grantees .shall be obliged to assemble within as short tune as they can conven- 
iently, not exceeding the space of two months, and jirocecd to the choice of 
Committees, respectively, to regulate each Propriety or Township which is to 
be held and enjoyed by one hundred and twenty of the Grantees, each in 
equal Proportion, who shall pass such orders and rules as will elfectually 
oblige them to settle Sixty families, at least, within each Township, with a 
learned, orthodox ministry, within the space of seven years of the date of this 
Grant. Provided, always, that if the said Grantees shall not effectually settle 
the said number of families in each Township, and also lay out a lot for the 
first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the school, in each of 
the said townships, they shall have no advantage of, but forfeit their respective 
grants, anything to the contrary contained notwithstanding. The Charge of 
the Survey to be paid by the Province. 

In Council read and concur'd. J. BELCHER. 

In June of 1733 these grantees met on Bo.^ton Common for 
the pnrjjose of making a division of the lands thus appropriated, 
but twenty veterans of the Narragansett War being then liv- 
ing. They organized into seven societies, each i*epresenting one 
hundred and twenty persons, and each represented by an execu- 



BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY. 21 

tive committee of three. These committees convened in Boston 
on the 17th of October, 1733, and, by drawing numbers from a 
hat, apportioned to their societies the following seven townships 
set apart from the public domain under the grant : No. 1, 
in Maine, now called Buxton ; ]^o. 2, Westminster, Mass. ; 
]^o. 3, Souhegan-West, now Amherst, N. H. ; No. 4, originally 
at the Falls of the Amoskeag, where GofPstown now is (subse- 
quently exchanged for lands in Hampden county, Mass.) ; No, 5, 
Souhegan-East, N. H. ; No. 6, Templeton, Mass. ; No. 7, Gor- 
ham, Me. Thomas Tileston, of Dorchester, drew "Number 5, 
Souhegan-East;" of the one hundred and twenty grantees 
whom he represented, fifty-seven belonged to Boston, fifteen to 
Eoxbury, seven to Dorchester, two to Milton, five to Braintree^ 
four to Weymouth, thirteen to Hingham, four to Dedliam, two 
to Hull, one to Medfield, five to Scituate, and one to Newport, 
E-. I. In the fifteen Roxbnry grantees was Zechariah Chandler, 
who w^as one of the few who personally took np land under the 
grant and settled upon it one of his own family. As a rule 
the grantees sold their claims to others. On the town records 
Zechariah Chandler's name is signed in the right of his wife's 
father, Thomas Bishop, who served against King Philip. His 
son, Tliomas Chandler, took possession of the land and was 
among the pioneers of the town. To-day the Chandler family 
is believed to be the only representative in Bedford of the 
original grantees. It M'as in 1737, 1738, and 1739 that syste- 
matic settlement' practically began in this part of the Merrimack 
valley. 

In 1741 New Hampshire became a separate province, and 
in 1748 the fanners of Souhegan-East, finding themselves without 
any township organization and without the power to legally 
transact corj^orate business, called upon the government for relief. 
As a result, it is recorded that on the 11th of April in tluit 
year Gov. Benning Wentworth informed the Council of New 



22 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

Hampshire "of the situation of a number of persons inhal)iting 
"a place called Soiihegan-East, within this Province, that were 
"without any township or District, and had not the privilege of 
"a town in choosing officers for regulating their affairs, such as 
"raising money for the ministry," etc. Thereupon a provisional 
townshi]) organization was authorized, under which the munici- 
])ality was managed until 1T50, when, on the loth of May, the 
following petition was sent to the Governor, signed by thirty- 
eight citizens, among them Thomas Chandler: 

To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and Commander-in- 
Chief of his Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, and to the Honorable, 
his Majesty's Council, assembled at Portsmouth, May 10, 1750. 
The humble Petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of Souhegan-East, 
so-called, sheweth. That your Petitioners are major part of said Souhegau ; 
that your petitioners, as to our particular persuasion in Christianity, are 
generally of the Presbyterian denomination ; that your petitioner.-;, through a 
variety of causes, having long been destitute of the gospel, are now desirous 
of taking jiroper steps in order to have it settled among us in that way of 
discipline which we judge to tend most to our edification ; that your petition- 
ers, not being incorporated by civil authority, are in no capacity to raise 
those sums of money, which may be needful in order to our proceeding in the 
above important affair. Mny it therefore pleas*^ your Excellency, and Honors, 
to take the case of your petitioners under consideration, and to incorporate us 
into a town or district, or in case any part of our inhabitants should be taken 
off by any neighboring district, to grant that those of our persuasion, who are 
desirous of adhering to us, may be excused from supporting any other parish 
charge, than where they conscientiously adhere, we desiring the same li! erty 
to those within our bounds, if any there be, and your petitioners shall ever 
pray, »S:c. 

This petition was presented on May 18, 1750, to the Council, 
which unanimously advised the granting of a charter, and this the 
Governor did upon the following day. The name of the town 
was changed by Governor Wentworth from Souhegan-East to 
Bedford, it is said in honor of the fourth Duke of Bedford, then 
Secretary of State in the ministry of George IT. This Avas the 
formal organization of the present town, wliich has a territorial 
extent of about twenty thousand acres of land. 



BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY. 23 

Of the early population of this and neig-hboring towns " The 
Centennial History of Bedford" (published in 1851) says: 

With few exceptions the early inhabitants of tl^e town were from the 
North of Ireland or from the then infant settlement of Londonderry, N. H 
To which they had recently emigrated from Ireland. Their ancestors were of 
SCO ch origin. About the middle of the seventeenth century hey .^^nt m 
con derabi: numbers from •Argylshire. in the West o Scotland, to the 
counts of Londonderry and Antrim, in the North of Ireland, from which m 
1718 a great emigration took place to this country. Some arrived at Boston, 
and some at Casco Bay near Portland, which last were the settlers of London- 
dely Mmiy towns in this vicinity were settled from th^ colony Windham, 
CI s^er Litchfield, Manchester, Bedford, Goffstown, New Boston Ancrim, 
Pet«rbo'rough and Acworth derived from Londonderry a considerable proper- 
tinn of their fust inhabitants. 

Many of their descendants have risen to high respectability, among whom 
are numbered four Governors of New Hampshire, one of the signers of the 
pLCfon of Independence, several di^inguished ot^ceis in tl. ^^^ 
War and in the last war with Great Britain, including Staik, Rei.l, Miller, 
aid McNeil a President of Bowdoin College, some Members of Congress, 
and several distinguished ministers of the gospel. 

It was a Scottish stock, with an Irish preceding the American 
transplanting, that peopled Bedford. There were an.ong its origi- 
nal settlers a few families of English and fewer still ot pure 
Milesian extraction, but the Scotch descent was overwhelmingly 
predominant, and the austere theology and noble traditions of the 
Kirk of Scotland formed the leaven of the comnmmty. Uieir 
religious history dated back to John Knox. Their immediate 
ancestors were the sturdy Presbyterians with whom James I. 
colonized depopulated Ulster after he had crushed the Catholic 
uprisin<.s. Those involuntary colonists made that the most pros-, 
perous of the Irish provinces, and at a critical moment for the 
cause of Protestantism added to the annals of heroic endurance 
the defense of Londonderry against the army of James II. But 
to their simple and tenacious faith the tithes and rents of the 
Anglican Church were scarcely less abhorrent than Catholic j^er- 
sec^tion, and the example of Puritan emigration ultimately led 



24 ZACIIAKIAH CIIANDLKK. 

tlieiu l)_v tliousands to American shores. Much of tliis tide of 
settlement Avas diverted ])_v the Puritan ])re-occnpation of New 
Enu'land soil to tlie ]\Iiddle and Soutliern States, but a stron<r 
cuiTcnt set up into northern New Enghmd and occupied (with 
much other territory) the valley of the Merrimack. It was to 
these Scotch-Irish Presbyterians that the greater number of the 
grantees of Bedford — as a rule tlie descendants of Massachusetts 
Puritans — sold their claims, and the community became Avhat 
their labors and influence made it. The Chandler (representing 
an original grantee) was one of the few Bedford families which 
sprang from English stock and possessed Puritan antecedents. 

The settlement of Bedford was thus tlie outgrowtli of an 
unquenchable thirst for civil and religious liberty. A ])rol'ound 
conscientiousness added these simple, devout, frugal, and indus- 
trious people to the pioneer assailants of the Xorth American 
wilderness. The ancient records and the published annals of the 
town afford a quaintly interesting j)icture of early New England 
civilization. Its background is the rock of religious faith, and to 
repeat the chronicles of the Bedford church for the eighteenth 
century is to write the history of the township for that period. 
The original grant required the maintenance of " a learned, 
orthodox ministry." The petition for the charter of Bedford set 
forth that " your petitioners, as to our jjarticular persuasion in 
Christianity, are generally of the Presbyterian denomination," 
and assigned as the chief reason for asking incorporation that 
they " having been long destitute of the gospel, are now desir- 
" ous of taking the proper steps in order to have it settled 
" among us," but " not being incorporated by civil authority are 
" in no capacity to raise those sums of money which may be need- 
ful." The official records of formal township proceedings al)Ound 
in such entries as these : 

Feb. 15, 1748. Voted— That one third of the time, Preaching sliiill be to 
accommodate the inhabitants at the upper end of the town ; one other third 
part, at the lower end of the town; the last third, about Strawbcrrio hill 



BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY. 25 

July 26, 1750. Voted, Tlieie be a call given to the Rev. Mr. Alexander 
Boj'd, to the work of the ministry in this town. 

Mirch 28, 1753. Voted, Unanimously, to present a call for Mr. Alexander 
McDowell, to the Rev'd Presbytery for the work of the ministry in this town. 

March 13, 1757. Fo<er/,— That Capt. Moses Barron, Robert Walker, and 
Samuel Patten, be a committee for boarding and shingling the meeting-house. 

March, 1767. Voted, — That the same committee who built the pulpit, 
paint it, and paint it the same color the Rev. Mr. McGregor's pulpit is, in 
Londonderry. 

June, 1768. The meeting-house glass lent out*; Matthew Little's account 
of the same. David Moore had from Matthew Little, six squares of the 
meeting-house glass ; Daniel Moor had 4 squares of the same, Dea. Gilmore 
had of the same, 24 squares. November 20, 17G8, The Rev. Mr. John Houston, 
had 24 squares of the same ; Hugh Campbell had 12 squares of the same ; 
Dea. Smith is to pay Whitfield Gilmore 6 squares of the same ; James Wallace 
had 15 squares of the same ; John Bell had 9 squares of the same ; Joseph 
Scobey, one quart of oil. 

A true record. Attest, WILLLVM WHITE, Toivn Clerk. 

[Extract from the "town meeting warrant" (call) for 1779] -. As for some 
time past, the Sabbath has been greatly profaned, by persons traveling with 
burthens upon the same, when there is no necessity for it, — to see whether 
the town will not try to provide some remedy for the same, for the future. 

The Bedford churcli has been ever the center of all public 
activity. Its officers have -been the officers of the town. From 
its pulpit have been made all formal announcements. Within its 
walls have been inspired every important home measure, and its 
influence has stimulated each wise public action. In the early 
records the school-house also shares prominence with the meeting- 
house, and the later generations of Bedford's inhabitants were men 
and women of solid primary education and thorough reh'gious 
training. Thrift and industry made them prosperous, and they 
raised large families of powerful men and vigorous women. 
The mothers and daughters shared in the field work, and even 

*The glass for the meeting-house was procured before the building was ready for it. 
and it was loaned to different members ; the careful record kept shows how scarce and 
costly an article it then was. 



26 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER 

carried on foot to IJoston the linen thread from their busy spin- 
ning wheels. Physical and moral strength characterized the race, 
and they built up a conmmnity of comfortable homes, severe 
virtues, strong religious instincts, a stern morality, and long lives. 
Neither poverty nor riches were to be found among them, and 
the simplest habits prevailed. Silks were uidaiown, and home- 
made linen was the clioicest fabric. Brown bread was the staple 
of life, and wheat flour a luxury. Tea and coffee were rarely 
seen, but barley broth was on all tables. Shoes were only worn 
in winter, except to church on Sundays when they were carried 
in the hand to the neighborhood of the meeting-house. The 
saddle and pillion were used in journeys. Splinters and knots of 
pitch pine furnished lights. The hymns were " deaconed out " 
by the line at the meeting-house, and at the appearance of the 
first bass-viol in the gallery (about 1790) there was a lierce 
rebellion among the more austere of the worshipers. There was 
community of effort in all important enterprises, and no man 
needed aught if his neighbor could supply it. 

Bat this frontier picture is not wholly stern in its lines. 
Along with this simplicity of life and severity of religious doc- 
trine there was no lack of frolic and rough joking, and the other 
rugged characteristics were relieved by shrewd wit and native 
humor. The annals of Bedford are entertaining and abound in 
such anecdotes as these : Deacon John Orr (the grandfather of 
the mother of Zachariah Chandler ) was a sturdy Irish-Scotchman, 
whose temper under extreme provocation once got the better of 
his devoutness and led him into a vigorous profanity of speech. 
This glaring dereliction in a church officer called for reprimand, 
and he was waited upon by the minister and a delegation of his 
brethren who asked, " How could you suffer yourself to speak 
80 ? " " Why, what was it ? " His offending language was 
repeated to hnn. " And what o' that ! " said he, " W ye expect 
me to be a' spirit and nae flesh?" Late in life Deacon Orr 



BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY. 27 

visited Boston ^?itll a load of produce and put up at a house of 
entertainment where, after he had drank several cups of tea, and 
refused a final invitation, the landlady said that it was customary 
to turn the cup upside down to show that no more was wanted. 
He apologized and promised to remember the injunction. The 
next morning he partook of a huge bowl of bread and milk for 
breakfast, and not wanting the whole laid down his spoon and 
turned the dish upside down with its contents on the table. The 
hostess was naturally angry, but was met with the statement that 
he had merely followed her own direction. The answer of a 
brother deacon to one of the congregation who complained, " I 
could na mak yesterday's preaching come together," was a com- 
pend of practical Christianity : " Trouble yourself na' about that, 
"man — a' ye have to do, man, is to fear God and keep His 
"commandments." It is also told that the objections of one of 
the stauncli Scotch Presbyterians of Bedford to the marriage of 
his daughter with an urgent suitor of Catholic parentage were 
overcome by the apt query, " If a man happened to be born in 
a stable would that make him a horse?" And to one of the 
rural theologians of the town is credited this contribution to 
ecclesiastical distinctions: "The difference between the Presby- 
"terians and Congregationalists is tliis: The Congregationalist 
"goes home and eats a regular dinner between services, but the 
"Presbyterian postpones his until after meeting." After a most 
vigorous quarrel between the minister and one of the flock over 
a boundary line dispute, the wrathful member of the congrega- 
tion was prompt at service on Sunday with the following 
explanation: "I'd liave ye to know, if I did quarrel with the 
minister, I did not quarrel with the Gospel." 

That this was a community of uncompromising patriotism 
follows from its character. In the French and Indian war the 
New England forces were at one time under command of Col. 
John Goffe, of Bedford, and the number of privates enlisted from 



28 ZACHAKIAH CHANDLER. 

tliat town was large. The Xew llaiiipsliii-e regiment wliicli Joined 
the expedition of General Andierst against Canada, connuanded 
by Colonel Golfe, was raised largely among the Scotch- Fi-ish 
emigrants of IIillsl)orougli and Rockingliam counties, and had in 
its ranks many Uedford men. In the Jfevolutionary ^Va^ a large 
])orrion of its ahle-lxxHed citi/en^ were in the first American 
army that beleaguered Boston and fought at Bunker Hill; nearly 
or quite half of all who could handle a mnsket were with Stark 
at Bennington, and with Gates at Saratoga. General Stark lived 
but a few rods from the town line on the north, and one of his 
most trusted officers was Lieutenant, afterwards Colonel, John 
Orr, of Bedford. The town records abonnd with votes taken to 
carry out the measures proposed l)y the Continental Congress, 
and also chronicle one case of semi-Toryism and its punishment. 
In 1T7<> Congress advised the disarming of all who were dis- 
affected towards the American cause, and the selectmen of the 
New Hampshire towns circulated this pledge among their people: 

In consequence of the above Resolution of the Continental Congress, and 
to show our determination in joining our American brethren, in defending the 
lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants of the United Colonies, AVe, 
the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise, that we will, to the 
utmost of our power, at the risk of oiu- lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose 
the hostile proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United 
American Colonies. 

Amonir its Bedford siu-ners w^ere flohn Orr, Zachariah Chand- 
ler, and Samuel Patten (all ancestors of Zachariah Chandler,) 
and the report made from that "town was this : 

To tlie honora])le, tlic Council and House of Representatives, for the Colony of 
New Hampshire, to be convened in Exeter, in said Colony, on Wednesday, 
5th inst. 
Pursuant to the within precept, we have taken pains to know the minds 
of tlie inhabitants of tht; town of Bedford, with respect to the within obliga- 
tion, and find none unwilling to sign the same, except (he Eev. John Houston, 
who declines signing the said obligation, for the following reasons : Firstly, 
Because he did not apprehend that the honorable Committee meant that Min- 



BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY. 29 

isters should take up arms, as being inconsistent witli their ministerial charge. 
Secondly, Because lie was already confined to the County of Hillsborough' 
therefore, he thinks he ought to be set at liberty before he should sign the said 
obligation. Thirdly, Because there are three men belonging to his family 
already enlisted in the Continental Army. 

Mr. Houston, who was thus officially reported as the onlj 
Bedford Tory, had occupied the town pulpit for over fifteen 
years, and was a man of scholarship and purity, but he had 
become a loyalist in sympathy at the outbreak of the Revolu- 
tionary troubles, and was as inflexible in conviction as his 
neighbors. Originally (in 1756) the town had voted that his 
salary should be at the rate of forty pounds sterling a year for 
such Sundays as they desired his services. When they felt 
unable to pay they voted him one or more Sundays for himself, 
and then deducted from his salary proportionately. In 1775, after 
prolonged controversy with him, his case was brought before 
town-meeting (on June 15tli), and he was unanimously dismissed 
by the adoption of a vote setting olf for his own use all the 
Sabbaths remaining in the calendar year. The town records 
contain this explanation of the action : 

June 15, 1775. Fo/cfZ — Whereas, we find that the Rev'd Mr. John Hous- 
ton, after a great deal of tenderness and pains taken with him, both in public 
and private, and toward him, relating to his speeches, frequently made both 
in public and private, against the rights and privileges of America, and his 
vindicating of King and Parliament in their present proceedings against the 
Americans ; and having not been able hitherto to bring him to a. sense of his 
error, and he has thereby rendered himself despised by people in general, and 
by us in particular, and that he has endeavored to intimidate us against main- 
taining the just rights of America : Therefore, we think it not our duty as men 
or Christians, to have him preach any longer with us as our minister. 

The resolute and uncompromising spirit, which thus sternly 
resented and punished unpatriotic sympathies in one whom the 
people had been accustomed to hold in reverence, was manifested 
on all occasions. This is a document of later date, signed by a 
Bedford committee, which seems not to have been suggested by 



30 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

any outside action, but to have resulted from the impulses of 

the citizens themselves : 

Bedford, May 31, 1783. 

To Lieut. Jolin Orr, Representative at the General Court of the State of New 
Hampshire : — 

Sir: — Although we have full confidence in J'oul- fidelity and public virtue, 
and conceive that you would at all times pursue such measures only as tend 
to the public good, yet upon the particular occasion of our instructing you, 
we (onceive that it will be an advantage to have your sentiments fortified by 
those of your constituents. 

The occasion is this ; the return of those persons to this country, who are 
known in Great Britain by the name of loyalist, but in America, by those of 
conspirators, absentees, and tories ; 

We agree that you use your influence that these persons do not receive 
the least encouragement to return to dwell among us, they not deserving favor, 
as they left us in ihe righteous cause we were engaged in, fighting for our 
undoubted rights and liberties, and as many of them acted the part of the 
most inveterate enemies. 

And further, — that they do not receive any favor of any kind, as we esteem 
them as persons not deserving it, but the Contrary. 

You are further directed to use your influence, that those who are already 
returned, be treated according to their deserts. 

In the War of 1812 tliere were more than two liundrcd men 
in Bedford armed and in readiness to march whenever called 
upon, and in tliis two hundred was one company of about sixty 
men over forty years of age and therefore exempt from military 
duty. In tlie War of the Rebellion Bedford invariably filled its 
quota without draft and without high bounties, and it paid its 
war debt promptly. 

It was in this community of stalwart, clear-headed, freedom- 
loving, sturdily honest, and uncompromisingly sincere men and 
women, that Zachariah Chandler was born and that the founda- 
tions of his character were durably laid. 



CHAPTER ii. 



PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 




'HE Chandlers of JSTew England are the descendants of 
William Chandler, who came from England in the days 
of the Pm^itan immigration — about 1687 — and settled 
in Roxbury, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The 
Chandlers of Bedford, IN". H., are the posterity of one of his 
descendants, Zechariah Chandler of Roxbury, who was among the 
grantees of Souhegan-East in the right of his wife, the daughter 
of a soldier in King Philip's War. They were the conspicuous 
English family in that Scotch-Irsh Presbyterian settlement, and 
their farm is the only one in that town which is still in pos- 
session of the lineal descendants of an original grantee. That 
Zechariah Chandler was a man of some means is shown by this 
document, which is still on record and reads curiously enough in 
the biography of a most inveterate and powerful opjDonent of 
slavery and the slave power : 

Boston, November 11, 1740. 
Received of Mr. Zechariah Chandler, one hundred and ten pounds, in full, 
for a Negro Boy, sold and delivered him for my master, John Jones. 

£110 WM. MERCHANT, Jun'r. 

This slave was taken to Bedford, but soon freed by his owner, 
when he assumed the name of Primas Chandler. Although past 
the usual military age, in 1775 he enlisted as a private in the 
service of the colonies, was captured by the British at " The 
Cedars" and was never afterwards heard from by his friends. 
He left a wife and two sons in Bedford, but his family has 
since become extinct. 



32 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

The first settlers in Bedford located cliiefly on tlie rocky 
and hilly territory which is now the central and most thickly 
inhabited portion of the town. East of this, in the smooth and 
fertile intervale of the Merrimack, judging by the names on the 
most ancient maps, the settlers were chiefly of English descent, 
and among them was Thomas Chandler, the son of Zechariah, 
and the first actual occupant of the land granted to his father. 
lie married Hannah, a danghter of Col. John Goffe, by whom 
he had four cliildren — three daughters and a son named also 
Zachariah, who married Sarah l*atten, the second danghter of 
Capt. Samuel J\vtten. This Zachariah, the grandfather of his 
namesake, the Senator, died on April 20, 1880, at the age of 70, 
and his widow died in 1842, aged nearly 94. From them were 
descended the two families of Chandlers, m'Iio in the i)]-esent 
generation have been prominent in Bedford. 

The oldest son of Zachariah was named Thomas, and was 
born Angust lo, 1772. He had fonr cliildren — Asenath, who 
married Stephen Kendrick, of Nashville ; Sarah, who married 
Caleb Kendrick; Hannah, who married Eufus Kendrick, a 
well-known citizen of Boston ; and Adam, who now lives in 
Manchester, where also reside his three sons, Henry and Byron, 
who are connected with the Amoskeag National Bank, and 
John, who is a prominent merchant of that city. The only 
daughter of Zachariah, Sarah, remained single, and Yixcd at the 
old homestead, which had become her property, nntil her death 
in 1852. Thronghont that whole region she was known for 
years as " Aunt Sarah." 

Samuel, the second son of Zachariah, was born May 28, 1774, 
and married Margaret Orr, the oldest daughter of General Stark's 
most trusted officer. Col. John Orr. They had seven children, 
one of whom died in infancy. Those who reached maturity were 
Mary Jane, who was successively married to the Kev. Cyrus 
Downs, the Rev. David P. Smith, and the Rev. Samuel Lee, and 



34 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

who is still living, the last surviving member of the seven, at 
the present homestead ; Annis, who married Franklin Moore and 
became a resident of Detroit ; Samuel, Jr., who, after four years 
at Dartmouth and Union colleges, lost his health and died in 
Detroit, in 1835; Zachariah, the subject of this memorial volume; 
and John Orr, who, after graduating at Dartmouth, spent one 
year in Andover Theological Seminary, came in feeble health to 
Detroit Avhere he was tenderly cared for by his brother, and finally 
went by way of New Orleans to Cuba, where he died in Janu- 
ary, 1839, his remains being subsequently removed to the Bedford 
])urying-ground. The father, Samuel, died in Bedford on Janu- 
ary 11, 1870, at the age of 95, and the mother in 1855, at the 
age of 81. 

The Chandlers during the three generations fi-oni Thomas 
to Samuel were thus allied by marriage to three of the most 
noted families, not only in Bedford l)ut in New Hampshire, 
the Goffes, Pattens and Orrs. They Avere generally long-lived, 
although consumption developed in different generations, and 
were always prominent in town and church matters. The 
Thomas Chandler who first settled in Bedford was one of the 
signers of the petition for incorporation in 1750, and was con- 
spicuously connected with all local movements at that time. His 
grandson Thomas, the Senator's uncle, was in the Legislature 
several tenns, and in Congress from 1829 to 1833, being elected 
as a Jackson Democrat. His name is frequently mentioned in 
the records of the church w^liere he was choir-leader and where 
he formed a class for instruction in sacred music. He was also 
selectman for many years, and held other positions in connection 
with the town government. He as well as his father " kept 
tavern " on one of the main New England thoroughfares of 
those days, and both were widely known through that region. 
Samuel, the father of the Senator, played the first bass-viol ever 
used in the church choir, and helped to stem the tide of indig- 



PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 



35 



nation with which the introduction of this "ungodly" instrument 
was met by the more rigid members of that orthodox Presby- 
terian body. His name often appears in the records as clerk of 
the church, selectman, and town clerk. He was for over twenty 
years consecutively a justice of the peace, and in his hands was 
usually placed such business as the settlement of estates. In the 
list of town officers the name of Chandler appears almost, every 




THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZAOHARIAH CHANDLER. 



year, and in almost all church and public gatherings for over a 
century some member of this family was present among the 
active and public-spirited citizens. 

The first house built on the Chandler farm was on the east 
side of the river road, and not far from the present homestead. 
It was torn doAvm many years ago, but the cellar was visible 



3h ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

imtil witliin a comparatively recent period. The second house 
was built before the Eevolutionary "War, by the grandfather of 
the Senator, and this is still standing, thongh it has been remod- 
eled and modernized. It was used as a tavern and court-house 
during that war. In this the second Zachariah and his wife lived 
for many years, and in this they and their daughter Sarah died. 
During their declining years they were cared for there by the 
mother of Rodney M. Rollins, the present occupant and owner 
of the place, and the house, with forty acres of land, was willed 
to Mrs. Rollins by " Aunt Sarah " previous to her death. This 
was the first alienation from the possession of the family of any 
part of the Chandler farm. Although the house has been 
remodeled, it retains many of its old features, and one apartment 
at the northwest corner has been preserved nearly as it w^as at 
the time of the Revolution. It is called the Revolutionary room, 
and has still in its furniture some of the chairs that were there 
a hundred years ago, and among its fi^xtures an ancient buffet, 
carved by hand and unchanged except by paint since 1776. 

On the opposite side of the road, fronting the east, and in 
sight of the Merrimack, where it takes its broad sweep above 
Goff's Falls, is the present Chandler homestead, which was built 
by Samuel Chandler in 1800, before his marriage. It remains 
to-day almost precisely as first constructed, and seems good for 
half a century more. Its rooms are large, and the ceilings 
unusually high for a farm-house of the earlier times. The front 
portion contains four large apartments on the lower floor, 
and in the rear are the dining-room, the kitchen, the pantry, 
and store-rooms. In the second story are five bed-rooms, with 
closets and additional store-room, and above these is a spacious 
attic. Among the furniture are chairs and chests of drawers 
of pre -revolutionary times, one of the ancient four- post bed- 
steads common a hundred years ago, and brass andirons which 
Avould delight the eyes of a lover of antique relics. Here still 



PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 37 

lives the Senator's oldest sister, and here the family of seven 
were born. 

In the ancient family bible, printed in 1803 and preserved by 
Mrs. Lee, is an entry of a bii-th, of which this is a fac- simile : 

'Tl.^^c^r JO "^S/i 

It will be noticed that the given name is written Zacharia^. 
Mrs. Lee still sjDeaks of her brother as Zacharias, and his name 
is also so printed in the Chandler geneaology in the centennial 
history of Bedford. The Senator in his signatures simply used 
the initial of his first name, but he ultimately adopted the 
ancestral Zachariah, and that was the name which he made 
famous, and by which he will be known in this biography. 

Zachariah Chandler's father and paternal grandfather, Samncl 
and Zachariah, are described as spare men of medium stature, 
but energetic and full of endurance. His mother, Margaret Orr, 
was tall and powerful ; her distinguished son resembled her in 
face, and inherited from her many of his most vigorous traits. 
She was a woman of great strength of character and robust sense, 
and exercised a large influence over her children. Her family 
was a remarkable one ; her father was the conspicuous man of 
his day in his part of I^ew Hampshire ; her brother, Benjamin 
Orr, became the foremost lawyer of Maine early in the present 
century, and served one term from that State in Congress ; her 
half-brother, the Rev. Isaac Orr, was a man of many accomplish- 
ments and a diverse scholarship, a prolific writer on scientific and 
philosophical topics, and with a claim on the general gratitude as 
the inventor of the application of the air-tight principle to the 
common stove. 



38 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

The boy Zachariah was healthy, strong, quick-tempered, and 
self-reliant, and the contrast was marked between his sturdiness 
and the constitutional feebleness of his short-lived brothers. The 
traditions of his childhood, still fondly cherished by his surviving 
sister, all show that from his cradle he was ready to fight his 
own battles, and that his " pluckiness " was innate. One juvenile 
anecdote related by Mrs. Lee will illustrate scores that might be 
repeated : His father's poultry-yard was ruled by a large and 
ill-tempered gander, the strokes of whose horny beak were the 
dread of the smaller children. The oldest brother was one day 
driven back by this fowl while attemj^ting to cross the road, 
when the young " Zach.,'" then three years old, called out " Do, 
Sammy, do, I'll keep e' dander off," and rushed into a pitched 
and victorious battle with the " dander," during which his brother 
made good his escape. 

His rudimentary education was obtained in the little brick 
6cliool-h(juse at Bedford, which renuiius substantially unchanged 
and is still used. Here he attended school regularly from the 
age of five or six until he was fourteen or fifteen. He had an 
excellent memory, and was a good scholar, standing well with 
others of his age. He was a leader in the boys' sports, always 
active, and entering with zest into every frolic. Of these 
days, one of his early playmates — now the Tie v. S. G. Abbott, 
of Stamford, Conn. — thus writes: ''The death of ]\[r. Chandler 
" revives the memories of half a century ago. The old brick 
"school-house where we were taught together the rudiments of 
"our education; the country store where his father sold such a 
"wonderful variety of merchandise for the wants of the inner 
"and outer man; the broad acres of field and forest in the 
" ancestral domain where we used to rove and hunt ; his uncle''s 
" ' tavern,' the cheerful home of the traveler when there were no 
"railroads, situated on a great thoroughfare, constantly alive with 
"stages, teams, cattle, slieej), swine, turkeys, and pedestrian 



40 ZACIIAHIAII CIIANDLf:R. 

" iiuniigTaiits — all these form a picture as distinct to tlie mind's 
"eye as if a scene of the present. Xo unimportant feature of 
"that picture in my boyish memory was a rough-buih, over- 
" grown, awkward, good-natured, popular boy, who went by the 
" never-forgotten, famihar sobriquet of ' Zach.' lie never forgot 
" it. After more than forty years' separation, wlien I called on 
"him in the capitol, and apologized for calling him Zaoh, in 
" his old, rollicking way he said ' Oh, you can call me old Zach, 
" that's what they all call me out West.' " 

In his fifteenth and sixteenth years he attended the acade- 
mies at Pembroke and Deny, with his older brother, who was 
fitting for college. In the winter following he taught school 
one term in the Piscataquog or " Squog " district. As is the 
rule in country schools, many of the pupils were about as large 
as the teacher, and the " Squog " boys had the rejjutation of 
l)eing especially unruly. The usual disorders commenced, but 
after some trouble the energetic young man from the Chandler 
farm established his supremacy, and the scholars recognized the 
fact that there was a head to the school. Mr. Chandler always 
spoke with interest of his brief experience in teaching, although 
he never claimed any particular success in that calling. AVliile 
he was thus employed the teacher of the brick school, in which 
he had been so long a pupil, was a Dartmouth sophomore who 
in his " boarding around " was especially welcome at the house 
of Samuel Chandler. This was James F. Joy, avIio then formed 
with the young Zachariah an intimacy, which ranked among the 
causes that determined Mr. Joy's own selection of Detroit as a 
home, and lasted through life. 

In the latter years of his school life young Chandler worked 
on the farm through the summer, and the last season that he 
was home he took entire charge, employing the help and su]>cr- 
intending the labor. Thomas Kendall, who was with him din-ing 
three summers, and who is still living in Bedford, says, " Zach. 



PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 41 

was a good man to work and a good man to work for." He 
was just in his dealings witli the men, but vigorous as an over- 
seer, and himself as good a " farm hand " as there was. Stories 
are still told of his achievements in mowing contests with the 
men. He had no liking, as had many of his fellows, for hunt- 
ing or fishing, but he was fond of athletic sports, and was the 
best wrestler in to^vn. " Whoever took hold of Zach.," says Mr. 
Kendall, "had to go down." 

During one of the last years of his residence at Bedford, 
Mr. Chandler was enrolled in the local militia company and 
turned out at the " general muster." He did not, however, 
succeed in bringing himself to perfect obedience to the orders 
of the young captain, whom he knew he could easily out-wrestle 
and out-mow, and was arrested for insubordination. He was kept 
under arrest through one afternoon, but the court-martial Avliich 
had been ordered for his trial was recalled and he was released. 
He was afterwards for a short time on the staff of the command- 
ing officer. General Riddle, but his removal from ISTew Hampshire 
took place at about this time. After his Janesville, Wis., speech, 
two days before his death, Mr. Chandler was called upon by the 
Captain Colley who had placed him' under arrest nearly fifty 
years before. Mr. Colley is now a resident of Rock county, 
Wis., and had driven a long distance to listen to his old-time 
subordinate, or rather insubordinate, and to revive with him old 
memories. 

In the year 1833 Zachariah Chandler entered the store of 
Kendrick & Foster of Nashua, and in September of that year, 
moved by the same impulse that has sent so many New Eng- 
landers into the growing territories, turned his face Westward, 
and in company with his brother-in-law, the late Franklin Moore, 
came to the city, which from that time to his death was his 
home. He had not then shown in any marked degree the 
qualities which made his future success so eminent, and was 



42 



ZACHAKIAH CIIANDLElt. 



apparently siiiij)ly a good specimen out of thousands of the ener- 
getic, determined, and sagacious young men, who, leaving more 
sterile New England, Lave subdued the forests, moulded the 
polities and conducted the business of half a dozen AVestern 
States. 

For the old homestead and its occupants, and for the town 
of Bedford, Mr. Chandler always entertained a M'arm affection. 
lie was a good correspondent, and his home letters, which until 
his entrance into public life were frequent and long, breathed a 
genuine feeling of filial and brotherly affection. After his elec- 
tion to the Senate, wnth the voluminous correspondence which 
his official position involved, his letters to the old home became 
less frequent, but to the last he kept up occasional connnunication 
with the surviving friends at his birth})lace. During his father's 
life he visited Bedford twice or more each year, and after his 
father's death made at least one annual journey there. In 1850, 
when the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town- 
ship occurred, Mr. Chandler was among those invited to be 
present, and sent the following letter of regret • 

» ■ Detroit, May 16, 1850. 

GENTi.EJrEN : — I regret exceedingly my inability to accept your kind 
invitation to be present at your Centennial Celebration of the settlement of 
the good old town of Bedford. It would have afforded me great pleasure to 
meet my old friends upon that occasion, but circumstances beyond my own 
control will prevent. The ashes of the dead, as well as the loved faces of the 
living, attract me strongly to my native town, and that attachment I find 
increasing each day of my life. Permit me, in conclusion, to offer : " The 
lovon of Bedford — May her descendants (widely scattered through the laud) 
never dishonor their paternity." 

Be pleased to accept, for yourselves and associates, my kind regards, and 
believe me. Truly yours, 

Z. CHANDLER. 

His later visits were looked forward to with much interest, 
not only by his relatives, but by the neighbors, to whom a talk 
with him was one of the events of the year. He was there 



PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 43 

always genial and friendly, kept up liis acquaintaiue with the 
old residents, and thoroughly enjoyed his association with theui. 
His last visit to the homestead was after the close of his campaign 
in Maiue, in August, 1879. He then met many of his boyhood 
friends, and enjoyed a ramble over the inidulating fields wliieh 
stretch from the central - hills toward the banks of the Merri- 
mack. And as he drove for the last time down the road from 
the house of his birth toward Manchester, he pointed to a pine 
grove which skirts tlie northern border of the Chandler fanri, 
and said to his companion, " That, to me, is the most beautiful 
grove in the world." 

New Hampshire has been prolific in strong men with the 
granite of its hills in the fibres of their characters. Bedford 
itself has been the birthplace of scores of the leading men of 
the thriving city of Mancheste-; of Joseph E. Worcester, the 
lexicographer; of Benjamin Orr, of Maine; of David Aiken, 
Isaac O. Barnes, and Jacob Bell, of the Massachusetts bar ; of the 
Hon. David Atwood, of Wisconsin; of Judge A. S. Thurston, 
of Elmira, K. Y. ; of Hugh Eiddle, of the Rock Island Rail- 
road, and Gen. George Stark, of the Northern Pacific; of the 
Rev. Silas Aiken, of the Boston pulpit; and of others of large 
influence in their generations. But upon no one of its sons was 
the impress of its peculiar history so indelibly stamped as upon 
the young man who left it to aid in founding a powerful State 
amid the Great Lakes, and wlio became the foremost representa- 
tive of that State's vigorous political conviction and purjDOse. 



CHAPTER III. 

REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN MERCANTILE SUCCESS BUSINESS 

^K INVESTMENTS. 

•ii N 1833 Zaeliariah Cliandler, tlieii still a minor, joined the 
current of AVestern emigration from New York and New 
England which had sprung up with the completion of 
the Erie canal, and in the fall of that year entered into 
the retail dry -goods business at Detroit. Franklin Moore (the 
husband of his sister Annis), who had already visited Michigan, 
came with him as a partner in the enterprise, and the original 
firm name was Moore & Chandler. At the outset the young 
merchant had some assistance from his father, who, the tradition 
is, oifered him $1,000 in cash or the collegiate education which 
his brothers received, the money being chosen. Samuel Chandler 
also subsequently bought a store for his son's use, but it is 
understood that all such advances were speedily and fully repaid. 
The building in which the future Senator first laid the founda- 
tion of his ample fortune was located where the Biddle House 
now stands; it adjoined the mansion of Governor Hull, and was 
subsequently transformed into the American House. Upon its 
shelves Moore tfe Chandler displayed a small general stock, repre- 
senting the ample assortment usual in frontier stores, and saw a 
promising business answer their invitations. In the following 
spring they removed to a brick store (on the site now occupied 
by S. P. Wilcox & Co.), near the main corner of the town 
(where AVoodward and Jeiferson avenues meet). In the sunnner 
of 1834 Detroit was visited by the Asiatic cholera, which 
aj->])eared in malignant form, and Avas attended by an ap]>alHng 



MERCANTILE SUCCESS. 45 

death rate, and an almost entire suspension of general traffic. 
Mr. Chandler did not yield to the prevalent panic, but remained 
at his business and was indefatigable in his efforts to relieve the 
universal distress. His vigorous constitution and plain habits 
guarded his own health, and he cared for the sick and buried 
the dead without faltering amid the dreadful scenes of the pesti- 
lence. For weeks he and a clerk (Mr. William N. Carpenter, 
of Detroit) alternated in watching by sick beds, and, with others 
of like strength and courage, brightened with unassuming hero- 
ism the gloomy picture of a season of dreadful mortality. 

On August 16, 1836, the firm of Moore & Chandler was 
dissolved, and the junior partner retained the established busi- 
ness, and continued its vigorous prosecution. Those who knew 
him then describe a fair -haired, awkward, tall, gaunt and wiry 
youth, blunt in his ways, simple in habits, diffident with others, 
but shrewd, tireless in labor, and of unlimited energy. He 
worked day and night, slept in the store, often on the counter 
or a bale of goods, acted as proprietor, salesman, or porter as 
was needed, lived on $300 a year, avoided society, and allowed 
only the Presbyterian church to divide his attention with busi- 
ness. He kept a good stock, especially strong in the staples, 
bought prudently, and there was no better salesman in the West. 
His trade became especially large with the farmers who used 
Detroit as a market, and the unaffected manners and homely 
good sense of the rising merchant soon gave him a popularity 
with his rural customers that foreshadowed the strong hold of 
his later life on the affectionate confidence of the yeomanry of 
the State. 

The training which this intense application added to native 
vigor of judgment early made him a thorough business man, 
exact in dealings, strong in an intuitive knowledge of men, 
sound in his judgment of values, prudent in ventures, and of an 
unflagging energy which pushed his trade wherever an opening 



46 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

could 1)0 foiiiid. As interior Michigan developed he added job- 
bing to his retail dei)artineiit, and became known aS a close and 
prudent buyer, a shrewd judge of credits, and a most successful 
collector. A business established at the commencement of an 
era of marvelous growth, pushed with such industry, drawn upon 
only for the meagre expenses of a young num living with the 
closest economy, and unembarrassed by speculation, meant a 
fortune, and at twenty-seven years of age Mr. Chandler found 
himself w'ith success assured and wealth only a matter of patience. 
His nearest approach to financial disaster was in the ruinous 
crash which swept " the wild-cat banks " and so many mercan- 
tile enterprises out of existence in Michigan in the year 1838. 
Like others he found it almost impossible at that time to obtain 
money, and the Bank of Michigan which had promised him 
accommodations was compelled by its own straitened condition 
to decline his paper. Thus it happened that a note for about 
$5,000 given to Arthur Tappan *Sc Co. of Kew York fell due 
and went to protest. Mr. Chandler, accustomed to New England 
strictness in business and exceedingly sensitive on the point of 
meeting all engagements, was inclined to treat the protest as 
bankruptcy itself, and called upon his Bedford friend, Jaiues F. 
Joy, then a young lawyer in Detroit and for years afterwards 
Mr. Chandler's counsel, to have a formal assignment drawn up. 
What followed is given in Mr. Joy's language : " I looked care- 
" fully into his affairs, and found them in what I believed to be 
" a sound and healthy condition. I then said : ' I won't draw 
"an assignment for you, diandler ; there is no need of it.' 
"'What shall I do ? ' was his answer, 'I can't pay that note.' 
" My reply was, ' Write to Tappan ik Co. and say that you 
" cannot get the discounts that have been promised, but that if 
" they will renew the note you will be able to pay it when it 
" next falls due.' Tie took my advice and went through, and 
" never had any trouble with his finances after that. I reminded 



MERCANTILE SUCCESS. 47 

"Mr. Chaudler of that occurrence about two months before his 
" death, when lie said he remembered it perfectly, and added 
" that if it had not been for that advice he might have been a 
" clerk on a salary to this day." 

Mr. Chandler's was the iirst business in Detroit whose sales 
aggregated $50,000 in a single year, and the reaching of that 
limit was hailed by the comnnmity as a great mercantile triumph. 
He showed increasing commercial sagacity at every stage of his 
active business life. He pushed his jobbing trade in all directions 
and made his interior customers his personal friends. He invested 
his surplus profits in productive real estate which grew rapidly 
in value. He was never tempted into speculation, and he was 
very reluctant to incur debt. As a result, ten years after he 
landed at Detroit he had a reputation throughout the new 
Northwest as a merchant of ample means, personal honesty, 
large connections, and remarkable enterprise. 

Between 1840 and 1850 Mr. Chandler reduced his business 
to a purely wholesale basis and made himself independently and 
permanently rich. He had opportunities and they were improved 
to the full. [And it may be here said without exaggeration that 
every dollar of the fortune with which he closed his career as an 
active merchant represented legitimate business enterprise ; it was 
the product of personal industry and good jiidgment put forth 
in a field wisely selected and with only slight aid at the outset.] 
The wiry . stripling had become a stahvart man, despite a family 
consumptive tendency which at times caused alarm. Prosperity 
did not affect the plainness of his manners and speech, nor tlic 
simplicity of his character, and maturity added method to, with- 
out impairing, his powers of personal application. He was a man 
alive with energy and thoroughly in earnest. He was active and 
influential in all public matters in Detroit. Every year he drove 
through the State, visited its cross -roads and its clearings, saw its 
pioneer merchants at their homes and in their stores, made up 



4:8 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

Lis estimate of men and tlieir means, stndied the growth of the 
State, and marked tlie coviivse of tlie Ijudding of its resources. lie 
thus kept himself tliorongldy informed as to the material develoj)- 
ment of Michigan, and acquired that intimate knowledge of the 
State and its rei)resentative men wdiicli formed such an important 
part of his equipment for public life. His companion in these 
numerous connnercial journeys was tlio man who succeeded him 
in the Senate, the Hon. Henry V. Bakhvin of Detroit, who came 
to Michigan largely through his solicitations, was engaged in 
business for years by his side, and remained his intimate associ- 
ate through life. This part of Mr. Chandler's career abounded 
in the making of friendships which endured until death. AVliile 
strict in all his dealings, he was considerate and his sympathy 
was quick with struggling industry and honesty. He aided when 
they needed it many who afterwards rose to position and wealth, 
and these men became the most tinnly attached of his supporters 
in his public career. 

Shortly after 1850 political affairs commenced to receive Mr. 
Chandler's attention, and he gradually entrusted more and more 
of the actual management of his large business to others, though 
he still for some years directed in a general way the operations 
of the house. He had been already absent one winter on a trip 
to the West Indies for his health, and had made a brief and not 
wholly satisfactory experiment (about 1846) at establishing a job- 
bing fancy -goods trade in New York. With these exceptions 
he had made his Detroit dry- goods business his personal charge. 
The firm name had generally been Z. Chandler & Co., although 
it was for some time Chandler & Bradford, and some of his 
relatives had been and were associated with him in business. 
From his second location he had moved his stock to more com- 
modious quarters on the site now occupied by the Chandler 
Block, and in ls,52 he again moved to the stores built jointly 
by himself and Mr. Baldwin on the southwest corner of Wood- 



MERCANTILE SUCCESS. 



49 



ward avenue and Woodbridge street. In 1855, as outside matters 
commenced to press constantly upon Mr. Chandler's attention, 
there came into his employment as a clerk a young man of 
twenty-three from Kinderhook, N. Y., Allan Shelden. lie showed 




THE CHANDLER BLOCK. 



an aptitude for business and a capacity for work that recalled to 
the head of the house his own earlier days, and Mr. Shelden's 
rise in his employer's confidence was rapid and permanent. On 
Feb. 1, 1857, just before Mr. Chandler took his seat as the suc- 
4 



50 ZACHARIAII CHANDLEIl. 

cesser of Lewis Cass in the Senate, the Una name was changed 
to Orr, Town & Smith, with Mr. Chandler as a special partner, 
with an interest of $50,000. In the fall of that year, it became 
Town, Smith & Shelden ; in the fall of 1859 it was changed to 
Town <fe Shelden ; on Feb. 1, 1866, it was again changed to the 
present name of Alhm Shelden & Co. Three years later Mr. 
Chandler ceased to be a special partner, and thns finally snndered 
his formal connection with the business he had established. The 
mercantile pre-eminence in Michigan of his house in its line of 
trade has been maintained by his successors, and it now occupies 
the magnificent Chandler Block, built for its acconnnodation by 
its founder in 1878 on Jefferson avenue in Detroit. Mr, Shelden 
himself continued in confidential relations with his predecessor, 
and was entrusted in later years with the managenient of a krge 
share of his private affairs. 

During his active business life no Northwestern merchant 
surpass^ Mr. Chandler in credit, in enterprise, or in success, 
and hti JUft the counter and office of his store with wealth and 
with an unsullied mercantile character. His commercial integrity 
and sagacity always remained among his marked characteristics. 
He made profitable investments, became interested in remunera- 
tive enterprises, and, while he lived generously after his income 
warranted it, saw his riches steadily increase under prudent and 
shrewd management. At the time of his death, his estate which 
was absolutely unincumbered was roughly estimated as exceeding, 
at the least, two millions, re])re8enting valuable business prop- 
erty in Detroit, several farms, large tracts of timbered lands, the 
marsh farm at Lansing, residences in Washington and Detroit, 
bank stock, government and other securities, and investments in 
jailroad and like enterprises. His business habits remained in 
full vigor to the last. He was punctuality itself in all appoint- 
ments; he was rigid in his adherence to his engagements; he 
hated debt, and never permitted the second presentation of an 



MERCANTILE SUCCESS. 51 

account; he did business on business principles and with business 
exactitude ; lie spent money freely but knew where and for what 
it went ; and always his counsel was sought and prized by men 
engaged in enterprises of the largest magnitude. Without being 
ostentatious or profuse in his charities he was a large giver, 
rarely refusing a meritorious application for aid, but he in- 
variably satisfied himself that the object was worthy, and put a 
heartiness into his " no " when a refusal seemed to him to be 
in order. 

His business instincts he never relaxed except for well-con- 
sidered reasons. The ditching of the marsh farm he regarded as 
an experiment of far-reaching public importance, and he paid 
its cost cheerfully for the sake of settling the question of the 
possibility of reclaiming such lands. Some of his " imprudences " 
of this deliberate and well-weighed sort proved profitable. During 
the w^ar and when the credit of the United States was at an 
alarmingly low ebb as shown in the ruling prices of its bonds, 
he visited the city of l^ew York in company with Representa- 
tive Rowland E. Trowbridge, of his State. On the way there he 
spoke, in private, in a tone of unusual depression of the financial 
difiiculties of the government, and lamented the absence of any 
available remedy. The next day there was a decided improve- 
ment in the rates for "governments" on Wall street, and the 
firmer feeling it created never wholly disappeared but was 
followed by a gradual appreciation in this class of securities. 
Mr. Trowbridge called his attention to the advance on the day 
following, and the Senator answered, "I know all about it. 
" I gave my broker orders to buy heavily and the street, finding 
" that out, said ' Chandler is just over from Washington and 
" knows something,' and so they followed my lead, and there 
" was a rush which sent the market up." Years afterwards, Mr. 
Chandler was reminded by Mr. Trowbridge of the permanent 
character of the improvement in the government's credit which 



52 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER 

attended his speculation and of liis own profit in the matter. 
lie replied that while he had sold many of his bonds bought 
during the war, he still held those which came into his possession 
at that time, cherishing them for their associations with an 
investment which he made at some risk to help the treasury in 
its difficulties and which had proved very remunerative. 

During his public life information legitimately acquired and 
the broadening of his judgment by contact with men undoubt- 
edly helped his investments, and thus added to his wealth, but 
individual pecuniary advantage he resolutely ignored in shaping 
his public career. And his sturdy incorruptibility as a legislator 
was proverbial at the capital. An illustration of this fa«fc was 
shown in his strenuous resistance to and emphatic denunciation 
of the bills to remonetize and coin without limit the old silver 
dollar. While these measures were pending he had considerable 
investments in silver mining stocks, wdiich would have been 
greatly increased in value by the proposed policy, but, showing 
one day to a friend a large draft representing a silver -mine 
dividend, he said, " I ought for personal reasons to favor these 
"bills, but I can't consent to make money at the expense of the 
" people." Another incident exemplifies this phase of his char- 
acter : In February, 1873, the city of Manistee, on the shore of 
Lake Michigan, sent Gen. B. M. Cutcheon to Washington to 
secure an increased appropriation for the improvement of its 
harbor. Senator Chandler, as the chairman of the Committee on 
Commerce and with a reputation for vigilance in caring for 
Michigan interests, was naturally relied upon for valuable assist- 
ance. He received General Cutcheon cordially, gave his personal 
attention to the matter of introducing the representative of 
Manistee to influential Congressmen and to department officials, 
and then made an appointment for the consideration of what his 
own share in the work should be. At that private meeting he 
expressed to General Cutcheon his cordial sympathy with his 



MERCANTILE SUCCESS. 53 

errand, but added, " My hands are tied ; the fact is that I am 
" interested in large tracts of pine on the Manistee river, and, if 
" I should take charge of your appropriation, it would be said, 
" ' Chandler is feathering his awn nest ; ' and if I am going to 
" retain my influence for good here, I must keep clear of even 
" the suspicion of a job." 

The great multitude who knew Mr. Chandler as a public man 
knew nothing of this early chapter of business life. It wholly 
ante -dated his appearance at Washington, and the channels in 
which his strong energies made themselves felt there and in his 
younger days were widely distinct. But it is a fact that he was 
a remarkable man of business and as thorough a merchant as 
ever developed in the West a great trade from small beginnings. 
His was a doubly successful career. Before he had reached 
middle age he had %von success in business and a fortune. Then 
he entered public life and made himself a leader of men in a 
historic era. 




CHATTIER IV, 

THE PANORAMA OF NOKTllWESTEKN DEVELOPMENT. 

IfE forty -six years of Zacliariah Chandlers life in 
Mic'liigan saw a vast material empire supplant an almost 
unl)r()ken wilderness. His connnercial enterprise and 
snccess and his labors as a legislator were among the 
influential agents in this marvelous develojmient and give its 
story a title to a i)laee in his biography. 

As early as 1634: Jesuits Brebnef, Daniel and Davost, 
following a route explored by Samuel C'hamplain eighteen years 
before, passed up the River Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, down 
French rivxr and along the lonely shores of the great Georgian 
bay to the dark forests bordering Lake Huron. Brebuef 
reached there first ; Daniel came later, weary and worn ; Davost 
came last of all, half dead with famine and fatigue.^'' Champlain 
had been before them, and other explorers preceded Champlain, 
but these three were the first Europeans who made a habitation 
by the shores of the great lakes which roll their tiivless fiood 
down through the gateway of Detroit. They erected a hut, and 
daily rang a bell to call the surrounding savages to prayers. 
Rehind them was the tangled forest they had penetrated ; at their 
feet were the broad waters of Lake Huron ; beyond — toward 
the setting sun — was an abyss so soundless that no echo had 
ever come from it. And these three soldiers of the cross, con- 
verters of the heathen, unarmed and alone amid a multitude of 
savages, were the advance ripples of the mighty Avave that two 

♦Parkman's "Jesuits in Nortli America." 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. 55 

centuries later was to break across the lake at tlieir feet and 
the rivers below them and snrge over the trackless wilderness 
beyond. 

Seven years later (September, lO-il,) Charles Eaymbanlt and 
Isaac Jaques emljarked in a frail birch -bark canoe, paddling 
northwest from Georgian bay among the countless islands of 
the St. Marie river, amid scenery that filled them with delight. 
After seventeen days the Sault de St. Marie burst upon their 
enraptured vision. There they were welcomed "as brothers" by 
the Chippewas and there began the first known white settlement 
in Michigan. 

On the 2Sth of August, 1660, Eene Mesnard left Quebec, 
resolved to make greater progress in the exploration of the 
Northwest. He ascended the Sault in a canoe, coasted along the 
northern shore of the upper peninsula of Michigan, and on the 
15th of October of that year reached the head of Keweenaw 
bay to which he gave the name of St. Theresa. Eight years 
later (1668) a permanent mission was established at the Sault. 
In the autumn of 1678 occurred an event forever memorable in 
the annals of Michigan. There was then laid on the Niagara 
river the keel of the first large vessel built on the shores of the 
great lakes. It was completed and launched early in the follow- 
ing summer, and on the 7th of August, 1670 (200 years ago), 
amid the discharges of arquebuses and the sound of swelling Te 
Be urns it began the first voyage ever made by Europeans upon 
the upper inland seas of North America. This was the " Griftin," 
sixty tons burden, carrying five guns, with La Salle commander, 
Hennepin missionary and journalist, and a crew of Canadian fur 
traders. Three days later (August 10), after many soundings, 
they reached the islands grouped at the entrance of Detroit 
river. They thus knew the lake was navigable by vessels of large 
size— this was one step toward solving the destiny of the West. 
Ascending tlie river, the explorers passed by a large number of 



56 ZACllARIAll CHANDLER. 

Indian villages ; these had been visited years before by Jesuit 
missionaries and eoureurs des hois. Some fix tlie date as early 
as 1610, but others make it latei-, no names being given in 
either case. Louis Hennepin gives the earliest descri2)tion of the 
river: "The strait (De troit) is finer than Niagara, being one 
"league broad, excepting that part which forms the lake that 
"we have called St. Clair." The strait once voyaged and 
understood, its value was quickly a]:)preciated by the French as a 
means of resisting the inroads of the persevering English (who 
from New York and New England were pressing upon their 
possessions in the East), and of preventing British interference 
with the valuable hunting privileges or with the Indian tribes 
dwelling upon the borders of the Northern lakes. With this in 
view the Marquis de Nonville, Governor - General of the Canadas, 
ordered (June 6, 1()S()) M. Du Lhut, who had been connnand- 
ant at Michilimackinac, "to establish a post on the Detroit, near 
Lake Erie, with a garrison of fifty men," and the order added, 
" I desire you to choose an advantageous place to secure the 
"passage, M'hich may protect our savages who go to the chase, 
"and serve them as an asylum against their enemies and ours." 
In obedience to these instructions, M. Du Lhut proceeded to the 
entrance of the strait from Lake Huron, where he built a fort 
and established a trading post (on the site of the present Fort 
Gratiot) which he called Fort St. Joseph. Thus (1686) was 
made the first settlement by Europeans in the lower j^eninsula 
of Michigan. 

The misfortunes of the war with England which terminated 
with the peace of Ryswick (Sept. 1, 1697,) still further con- 
vinced the most sagacious of the leading French colonists of the 
importance of a fort on the Detroit river which would command 
this channel of communication with the great lakes above. Im- 
pressed with this fact, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a Gascon 
sailor Avho nmid a career of ronumtic adventure came to be 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. 67 

commandant at Michilimackinac, crossed the Atlantic in person, 
and earnestly and repeatedly pressed upon the colonial minister, 
Coimt Ponchartrain, the necessity of the prompt establishment 
of a permanent post on the Detroit, where it would bring the 
French forces in closer jjroximity to the Iroquois and would give 
them command of the waters of the upper lakes and of the 
great fur trading regions about them. Cadillac did not urge 
this as a missionary enterprise but for its commercial and mili- 
tary advantages, and the force and vigor of his representations 
prevailed at the palace. He sailed from France with the royal 
order, "Take prompt possession of Detroit," with this supple- 
ment from Ponchartrain : " Prosecute vigorously ; if the Jesuits 
obstruct, return and report." Cadillac arrived in Quebec early 
in the first year of the eighteenth century (March 8). Three 
months later (June 5) his preparations were made, and on that 
day he took his departure from La Chine. With him w^ere 
Captain Tonti, Lieutenants Dugue and Chacornacle, fifty soldiers, 
and fifty Canadian traders and artisans. ^Nineteen days later he 
arrived upon the site of the present city of Detroit. In his 
memoir Cadillac wrote : " I arrived at Detroit, July 24 (1701), 
" and fortified myself there immediately. I had the necessary 
" huts made and cleared up the ground preparatory to its being 
" sowed in the autumn." When he touched the shore of Michi- 
gan, with pomp and ceremony he erected a cross, a cedar post 
beside it ; then with a sword in one hand and a sod in the other 
he made solemn proclamation with many words of "possession 
taken" of all the country round about, from the great lakes to 
the south seas, in the name of the King of France. 

Thus French Michigan began, and so it remained until 
Wolfe's victory gave new rulers to Canada and to all the French 
possessions beyond. On Nov. 29, 1760, the French flag floated 
for the last time over Detroit, as a part of the dominion of 
France. On that day Maj. Kobert Kogers, an English provincial 



58 ZACIIAKIAH CHANDLER 

officer, luitive of New Ilampsliire, took possession in the name 
of another king, ran up tlie Cross of St. George, tired a sahite, 
gave some round British cheers, and ( the Treaty of Paris con- 
firming this occupation) Michigan was English. It so remained 
until the Revolution and the treaty of 1783 made it American. 
But it was not until thirteen years after (1796) that it W'as 
evacuated by the British garrison; in Juno of that year Captain 
Porter with a detachment of American troops entered the fort 
and hoisted the Union flag for the first time, and took formal 
possession in the name of the United States. The Hull suiitii- 
der again swept Detroit and that part of Michigan lying within 
its connnand under the Cross of St. George (Aug. 10, 1812,) to 
remain until Perry's victory and the subsequent military successes 
of General Harrison expelled the English and restored it perman- 
ently to the Union, on Sept. 28, 1813. During the Revolution 
Detroit was the headquarters of British j)ower in the Xorthwest, 
and from it were sent out the exjieditions which ravaged the 
frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

The British captain, Rogers, who took possession in 1700, 
afterwards reported the population (1705) as: Able-bodied men, 
243; women, 10-4; children, 294 — total, 701. This was exclusive 
of the garrison, who were sent away as jirisoners of war, and 
included the 00 men, v^•omen and children who were slaves. He 
also reported that of the French families remaining in the settle- 
ment tliere were 23 men able to bear arms, 24 women, and 41 
children. The others were probably English Avho had followed 
upon the track of the troops. Captain Rogers's report gives 
strengtli to th's supposition. It sa^'s: "There are in the fort 
many English merchants, several of whom have bought houses." 
Then it gives this insight into the industrial condition of the 
settlement : '' Of farms tliei'c are 40, and some fourscore 
"acres in depth with a frontage on the river; of these several 
"farms are at present in cultivation." The nnniber of acres 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. 59 

under cultivation is given as 404; number of bushels of wlieat 
raised the preceding year, 070 ; bushels of corn, 1,884. The 
report quaintly adds: ''The Indian corn would have been in 
"greater abundance, had proper care been taken of it; the moat 
" part has been devoured by birds." 

Here remote from the world, with the joyous sparkling of 
the great river at their feet, the hixiirianee of the forest about 
them, the cottages of the settlers peeping out from the green 
foliage in which they were half hidden, these simple colonists 
lived uneventful lives, surrounded by the beauty and the bounties 
of nature. The forests teemed with game, the marshes with wild 
fowl, and the rivers with fish. The long winters were seasons of 
enjoyment. In summer and autumn traders, voyageurs, coureurs 
des hois, and half-breeds gathered from the distant Northwest, and 
the settlement was boisterous with rude frolic and gaiety. This 
was Detroit and Michigan in 1765.* 

Between the French surrender and American occupancy, little 
was done toward the development of the peninsulas. In 1796 
there were a few straggling settlements on the Detroit river, as 
also on Otter creek and on the rivers Rouge, Pointe aux Trem- 
ble, and other small streams flowing into Lake Erie. The French 
Canadians had extended their farms to a considerable distance 
along the banks of the St. C-lair. Detroit was a small cluster of 
rude wooden houses, defended by a fort, and surrounded by 
pickets. Villages of the Ottawas and Pottawatamies stood on 
the present site of the city of Monroe, and near them were a 
few primitive cabins constructed of logs, erected by the French 
on either bank of the river Raisin ; this was called Frenchtown, 
and is now part of Monroe. On the upper lakes there were the 
posts on the island of Mackinac, at St. Marie, and at St. Joseph 
(on the St. Joseph river). The transition from France to Eng- 

*This is Parkman's picture in "The Conspiracy of Pontiac." 



CO ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

land liad given the monopoly of the fur trade to the Hudson 
Bay Company, thus dianging the direction of its profits; other- 
wise the effect upon Michigan had been a change of masters, 
flag and garrison, and little else. And the shifting from England 
to the TTnited States also meant only new faces and new colors 
in the fort ; otherwise it was for the time eifectless. 

The interior of the country Avas but little known except to 
those engaged in the fur trade, and they were interested in 
depreciating its value. Even as late as 1807 the Indian titles 
had only been partially extinguished, and no portion of the pub- 
lic domain had been brought into the nuirket. The oj^posite 
shore was occupied by a vigilant and jealous foreign power. The 
interior of the future State swarmed with the savages who yet 
made it their liome, and an Indian war was threatening. These 
things repelled the tide of immigration that was already surging 
over Oliio and the country bordering on the Ohio river. Eour- 
teen years after American possession the jiopulation of Michigan 
was given as: Whites, 4,384; free blacks, 120; slaves, 24 — total, 
4,528. Five years before the number of householders in the 
lower peninsula was officially given as 525. There are antecedent 
estimates of population and assertions, but no facts that can be 
relied on. It is, however, probable that at the time of the Brit- 
ish evacuation (179«)) the population did not exceed 2,500 souls, 
for two years afterwards (1T08) Wayne county, then co-extensive 
with the present State of Michigan, sent a representative to 
Chillicothe, where it was claimed that the Northwest Territory 
was entitled to a deleffiite in Couirress because there Mci-e then 
6,000 inhabitants within its boundaries. It can scarcely be pos- 
sible that half of that aggregate was in Michigan alone, and that 
its settlers then equaled in numbers those scattered over the 
inviting and fertile region which now includes the powerful and 
populous States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. Gl 

The growth of the decade succeeding 1810 was trifling. In 
1820 the censns showed but 9,048 souls in Michigan Territory, 
which included the present State and the region beyond the 
lakes north of Illinois. The war was over. Indian depredations 
had ceased and the Indian titles had been quieted. The perils 
of settlement were removed. The seeming obstacles of the toil 
and privations of frontier existence were mere cobwebs in the 
Way of the hardy and adventurous. But there yet remained 
Berious impediments to Michigan's growth. Distance was one, 
for the State was still difficult of access, and canals and railroads 
were yet in the future. A more serious impediment was a 
blunder. On May 6, 1812, Congress passed an act requiring that 
2,000,000 acres of land should be surveyed in Michigan Territory. 
The surveyors went into the forest with their chains and poles, 
and the result was a report to Congress which may be thus 
summarized : " Many lakes of great extent ; marshes on their 
" margins ; marshes between ; other places covered with coarse 
"'high grass; this grass covered with water from six inches to 
" three feet ; lakes and swamps over half the country ; the inter- 
" mediate space poor, barren and sandy ; the dry land composed 
"of sand-hills, with deep basins between and more water; the 
"margins of many of the streams and lakes literally afloat, or 
"thinly covered with a sward of grass with water and mud 
" underneath ; the country altogether so bad that there would 
"not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would 
"be one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit -of 
"cultivation." Official stupidity had its effect on Congress, and 
in 1816 (April 29) that body cancelled the survey order, and 
abandoned Michigan to the hunte],-s and trappers and their 
game. For two years this continued; but the adventurous 
would plunge into the wilderness and would come back and talk 
of beautiful valleys, broad prairies and fertile soils. Explorations 
widened and a multitude of witnesses came with their facts to 



62 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

])i()VO that tlie curtain of forest concealed sunictliiiig more invit- 
iuiT than niarsli and barren and sand-]iill. Then tlie government 
(1818) ordered a new survey and out of all this came part of 
the truth, namely : There was in this wilderness an immense 
variety of forest trees — oak, niajjle, ash, elm, sycamore, locust, 
butternut, walnut, poi)hir, whitevvood, beech, hemlock, spruce, 
tamarack, chestnut, white, yellow, and Norway pine. There were 
plains and natural parks; there were level prairies and hills rising 
with gradual swell away to the center of the State. Of soils 
there were deep sandy loams mixed with limestone pebbles, deep 
vegetable moulds mingled with clay producing dense and lux- 
uriant vegetation, brown loams mingled with clay, deep vegetable 
moulds with a surface covering of black sands. There was water 
in abundance, rivers and streams and creeks and beautiful lakes. 
All these reports and more, confirmed and re -confirmed by 
pioneers and surveyors, came back from the interior, until the 
exceeding richness and great agricultural value of the Lower 
Peninsula of Michigan was established. 

But another event was to exercise a most important influence 
upon the future State. In 1817 the first steamer upon the 
Northern lakes, the " Ontario,"' was launched, and, amid bonfires, 
illuniinations and most lively demonstrations of joy, made her 
first trip upon Lake Ontario. This heralded the dawn of a 
material revolution. One year later, on the 27th day of August, 
1S18, the " Walk-in-the- water," the first steamer launched above 
Niagara Falls, came wp to the wharves of Deti'oit after a passage 
of forty- four hours from Buffalo. This vessel, of only 34U tons, 
and lost three years later, was a puny affair, but wise men saw 
in her advent the promise of a future which time has more than 
realized. Then in the wake of the steamer. Congress (1819) 
ordered the ])ublic lands of Michigan placed in the market for 
sale. At this time Detroit contained 250 houses, 1,4-1.") inhabi- 
tants, and the entire territory a population of 8,89(5. In 1825 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. 63 

the Erie canal was completed, and its far-sighted projector, 
De Witt Clinton, sailed amid national acclamations from Lake 
Erie to tide -water. It completed the link of direct water 
communication with Michigan, and the stream of Western emi- 
gration was quickly swollen to a torrent. 

Mr. Chandler first came to Michigan in 1833. Three years 
before (1830) the census of the entire territory, as it was 
constituted when Illinois was admitted to the Union, was 32,531. 
The growth during the preceding decade had been steady, not 
immense; that was to come after. It was in the year of 1833 
that the first settlement was made in the present State of Iowa. 
And in that fall (September) the people of Detroit were rejoicing 
that "arrangements were in train for the establishment of a new 
"stage -line route to Chicago, by which travelers can go from 
"one place to the other in five days." There was not then a 
mile of railroad in the territory, and not until five years after 
(1838) was the first twenty- nine miles completed to Ypsilanti. 
Detroit was still a frontier post numbering less than 4,000 
inhabitants. On all the Western lakes at the beginning of that 
year there were but eighteen steamers, ranging from fifty to 
30.5 tons in burden, and aggregating but 3,710 tons, and with 
the best of these a voyage of thirty -nine hours from Buflialo 
to Detroit was a remarkable passage. All this was improvement ; 
yet the Detroit merchant in that year could not exj^ect to receive 
his purchases made in ]^ew York within less than from three to 
six months after the time of setting out to jjrocure them. 
During the winter steamboats and river craft were ice-bound, 
and the settlements at Detroit, the River Raisin and elsewhere 
throughout the broad peninsula, were shut out from the Eastern 
world, except as travelers braved the tedious and painful staging 
through Canada to Buffalo, with its week of continuous day and 



04 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

A year later (1834) Congress defined the boundaries uf Mich- 
igan Territory. Let the finger trace on the atUis the northern 
borders of Ohio and Indiana, follow around the south shore 
of Lake Michigan to the boundary between Wisconsin and Illi- 
nois, pursue that line to the Mississippi river, then down its 
stream to the north line of the State of Missouri, along that 
westward to the Missouri, and up that river until between the 
25tli and 26tli degrees of west longitude the finger reaches the 
faint line, coming down into the Missouri from the north, of 
the White Earth river — all the land and lakes between the 
Detroit straits and this little White Earth river and between the 
line so traced and the British possessions, -was Michigan Territory 
in 1834 and until Michigan was admitted as a State into the 
Union. It was an imperial domain, larger than Sweden and 
Norway united ; nearly three times greater than England, Wales, 
Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel islands; surpassing the united 
territories of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark and The 
Netherlands; even exceeding the combined acreage of Italy and 
the German Empire. Yet in all this region, when Mr. Chandler 
displayed his first stock of goods in Detroit, there was not one 
mile of railroad or telegraph, not one steam mill or manufactory, 
but one city approaching 4,000 inhabitants and not one exceed- 
ing it, and not a single mile of paved street or sewerage. There 
was but one water -works, and no gas-works. There was not one 
daily newspaper, and but few of any kind. The valuable iron 
deposits of the Upper Peninsula were undiscovered. The wealth 
of pine timber w'as unknown. In the previous year (1832) the 
total value of foreign and domestic produce exported from Mich- 
igan amounted to but the trifling sum of $9,234, and in the 
preceding federal census (1830) the entire civilized population 
of this vast area of limitless possibilities was less than 33,000, 
although there were then in the Union twenty-four States with a 
population of 12,866,020. 




'•^%i 



11 1 



. if 



.iiif' 



OG ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

Mr. Chandler came in witli tlie first swell of the great 
tide of emigration which broke over Micliigan Territory. I^p to 
within a brief period preceding, that extensive and fertile region 
was scarcely known except as it apj^eared on maps. Its rich 
prairies, it'; fertile plains, its deep forests with all their wealth, 
were a terra incognita to all white men except the fnr traders. 
But it was being rapidly known and nnderstood. Its fame had 
rolled back over the East, and the fruits were seen in the new 
faces and sturdy forms swarming to Detroit as a point of depart- 
ure to the new and beantiful land. In that year (1833) it was 
a matter of boasting that as many as "one hundred and seventy- 
five emigrants had landed in Detroit in one day." The next 
year Niles' Register had a report from Detroit that the arrivals 
had reached the magnificent proportions of "nine hundred and 
sixty in one day," and that " the streets of Detroit were full of 
wagons loading and dejoarting for the AYest," jirincipally for the 
region about Grand river. And the same journal said : " The 
" character of these emigrants is in every respect a subject of 
" felicitation. They wall give Michigan a capital stock of wealth 
"and moral w^orth unequaled by any of the newly -fornied States, 
" and scarcely approximated by Ohio." 

In 1833 and for more than a year afterward the business 
part of Detroit was confined to the narrow space bounded by 
Wayne and Randolph streets, Jefferson avenue and the river, 
and at the same time there were but few buildings on Jefferson 
avenue above Rivard, and but one on Woodward avenue north 
of State street. Old wind -mills lined the shores; the little 
unsightly French carts clattered through the streets ; ducks, geese 
and pigs were the only city scavengers. This sounds like another 
age — another continent — but it was the Detroit and Michigan 
of but forty -six years ago. Change came with population — 
slowly at first, then wnth increased speed, then with immense 
strides. Mr. Chandler lived to see it all and to be a part of it. 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. 67 

He came with the early tide of population; he saw the tide 
rising, at lirst languid, halting and uncertain ; he saw it year 
by year gathering momentum and volume until it swelled and 
rolled over Michigan a mighty flood of hrawn and brain, of 
enterprise and conscience. 

On the fifth day of !N"ovember, 1879, tens of thousands of 
people looked upon the dead face of the stalwart Senator and 
followed his body to its last resting place in the city to 
which he had come in 1S33. Forty -six years and a few weeks 
had passed ; no more. But in that time the city which he made 
his Iiome had spread its wings until it covered an area of thirteen 
and a half square miles, with 300 miles of streets (seventy -six 
miles paved), and some of them among the broadest and most 
beautiful in the world, shaded by rows of graceful trees of lux- 
uriant foliage, and adorned by stores and private residences rich 
in finish and architecture. It had 200 miles of water-mains and 
150 miles of sewers, making it one of the most perfectly-drained 
cities on the continent. Its population had grown to be 120,000, 
and its taxable wealth to exceed $87,000,000. School buildings, 
representing a public investment of $650,000 and accommodating 
15,000 j^^ipi^s, were scattered through its wards, and numerous 
churches and abundant public and private charitable institutions 
made proclamation of the faith and philanthropy of its citizens. 
Great manufacturing enterprises lined its wharves and suburbs; 
scores of railroad trains arrived at and departed from its depots 
daily; and the commerce of the lakes was passing along its river 
front at the rate of thousands of tons hourly. 

But the change in Michigan had been no less marvelous. 
The State has a representation in the present Congress of the 
United States exceeding that of any one of eight of the first 
States of the Union, equaling the representation of that of two 
others (Georgia and Yirginia), and only exceeded by that of 
three of the original thirteen — Massachusetts, 'New York, and 



68 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

Peiiiisylvariia. In a single county of tlio I^pper Peninsula, in 
1833 supposed to be only a mass of barren, uninviting and unin- 
habitable rocks, there are three cities either one of which has a 
greater population than the Detroit of that day, and in Michi- 
gan out of its forty -three cities and 1V8 villages (April, 18Y9) 
there are over thirty more populous than Detroit in 1833 — some 
of them with pojjulations from five to eight times greater. The 
people of the State are a million and a half in number, spread 
over the greater part of the Lower Peninsula, about the Sault, 
and from Marquette to Ontonagon and south to Menominee in 
the Upper Peninsula. Its newspapers have grown to twenty- 
three dailies and over 300 with less frequent issues. Its railroads 
have developed from non-existence to 3,500 miles, owned by 
thirty-six corporations, connecting Detroit and the principal cities 
of Michigan with all portions of the State, penetrating to every 
center of population and industry, costing over $160,000,000, and 
paying in each year for salaries and operating expenses over 
$13,000,000. Strong institutions for the care of the deaf and 
dumb and the blind and for the insane, a thriving college for 
agricultural education, and that noblest monument of the wisdom 
and forethought of the latter-day founders of Michigan, the State 
University, were all planted in these years. And with this, the 
public school system was nourished until there are over 300 
graded schools and over 6,000 public schools in the State, with 
property valued at over $9,000,000, paying almost $2,000,000 
yearly in teachers' wages, and with annual resources amounting 
to nearly $4,000,000. In the mountains of the Upper Penin- 
sula, so long reputed a barren wilderness, have been discovered 
exhaustless mines of the richest iron ores and the most extensive 
and valuable copper deposits known on the globe. The Saginaw 
Valley has poured a briny stream of wealth upon the State 
from its unfailing salt -wells, and from the forests about and 
beyond to the westernmost limits of Michigan have been gathered 



NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT. 69 

great treasures of pine aud hard woods. And while nature was 
yielding its hidden stores to enrich the State its skilled citizens 
were not idle. Over 10,000 manufacturing establishments in 
Michigan now employ upward of Y0,000 people, pay more than 
$25,000,000 annually in wages, make an infinite variety of wares, 
and turn out products each year amounting in value to more 
than $130,000,000. The statistics of agricultural development 
are equally remarkable. The log cabin and the clearings have 
yielded to ample farms. The marsh, the pine barren, even the 
hyperborean soil of the Upper Peninsula, have been transformed 
into productive wheat -fields. The cereals of Michigan exceed in 
their annual product 70,000,000 bushels, and $45,000,000 in their 
value. Highly cultivated and valuable farms (over 111,000 in 
number and with a total acreage of 10,000,000) cover the greater 
part of tlie Lower Peninsula. Comfortable, even stately, farm 
houses dot the landscape. School - houses, churches, villages, 
towns and cities stand where the forest was. The wilderness has 
fled away. Everywhere there are evidences of peace, prosperity, 
happiness and a high civilization. It is magic; courage, intelli- 
gence and industry have been the magicians. 

The changes in the other parts of the Michigan Territory 
of 1833 liave been no less marvelous. Four States have been 
carved out of that region whose boundaries in 1834 were 
traced on the atlas — Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota 
— and the great wheat farms of Dakota will soon develop into 
a fifth. This entire territory to-day has eight Senators, twenty- 
nine Representatives and one Delegate in Congress, has over 
11,000 miles of railroad, seventy -seven daily papers and over 
1,100 weekly or nionthly publications, and several great cities 
larger tlian Philadelphia and New York when the United States 
had taken its second census. It has a population greater than 
that of the thirteen colonies which successfully defied the power 
of Great Britain during the Revolution, greater than that of the 



TO ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

SIX New England States in the present day. It produces a larger 
amount of breadstufis than the whole Union yielded when Mr. 
Chandler first came to tlie territory, and contains more wealth 
than did all the States fifty years ago. 

This is a marvelous story of growth, Nothing in the Old 
World has equaled it. Nothing the New has exceeded it. It 
has confounded prophecy. It has outrun imagination. It is the 
achievement uf a stalwart race. It is the triumph of faith, of 
zeal, of courage. It dazzles the men of to-day. And it will 
stand for centuries to excite the admiration of the historian and 
the wonder of the future. 




CIIAPTEPv Y. 

THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY KECOED AS AN 

ANTI-SLAVERY WHIG. 

HE conspicuous figure in Micliigan politics, wlien 
Zacliariali Chandler landed at Detroit and for twenty-five 
years afterward, was Lewis Cass, He was a man of abil- 
ity and many accomplishments, irrej^roachable in private 
life, and with a claim upon tlie enduring gratitude of the j)eople 
of the IS'orthwest for his large share in the founding of miglity 
States about the shores of the great lakes. He came to Michi- 
gan with military distinction, and had added to his laurels civic 
honors as a territorial ruler, as a skilful negotiator with the 
Indians, and as an intrepid explorer. General Cass was a warm 
political and personal friend of Andrew Jackson, and his influ- 
ence made Michigan a strongly Democratic territory and State. 
In 1831 he had been appointed Secretary of War in President 
Jackson's cabinet, and in 1836 he was sent to Paris as the United 
States Minister at the court of Louis Phillippe. The courage, 
vigor and skill of his attack upon the " Quintuple Treaty," which 
embodied Great Britain's theories on the then delicate topic of 
the right of search on the high seas, and which was defeated by 
the refusal of France to ratify the preliminary negotiations, 
made his ambassadorship an event in European diplomacy, and 
gave him a national reputation on this continent. Tlis return to 
Detroit in 1843 was attended l)y unusual popular demonstra- 
tions at every important point in his Westward journey. In 1845 
Michigan sent him to the Senate, and in 1848 the Democracy 
nominated him as its candidate for the presidency. That a man 



72 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

\vli(» thus iiuulc a new eoiinnoiiwcaltli influential in luitional ])()li- 
tics should call about him a strong following and mould public 
sentiment at his own ln)ine was natural, and the State of Lewis 
Cass was long regarded as staunchly Democratic. His party lield 
control for years of the main avennes of political preferment, 
'and not a few young men of i^arts and ambition who came to 
Michigan as "Whigs were led into the ranks of the Democracy 
by the fact that it was the only organization M'hich had honors 
and offices to bestow. 

General Cass was a courtly gentleman, dignified in manners, 
who, with a natural boldness of character which never lost 
wholly its power of self-assertion, gradually became ultra -con- 
servative in his Democracy. Originally he had anti- slavery 
tendencies, but the Southern drift of his party, which became 
apparent about the time of his return from France, carried him 
with it, and he grew to be one of the most assiduous originators 
and supporters of the series of compromises whicli so long 
defeated justice and encouraged the aggressions of the slave 
power. The result was that in time the hammer of his personal 
influence in Michigan was broken on the anvil of New England 
ideas, while his name became the symbol of " hunkerism " in the 
Northwest; but in December, 1860, his octogenarian patriotism 
flamed up in the presence of armed treason and executive imbe- 
cility, and he branded the administration of James Buchanan as 
it deserved by indignantly resigning the portfolio of the depai*t- 
meut of state. No political contrast could well be more vivid 
than that between Lewis Cass and the man who succeeded 
him in the Senate, and replaced him in the ])olitical leader- 
ship of Michigan, representing a greater State, a nobler political 
cause, and instead of the make -shifts of compromise ideas which 
are to-day embodied in the fal)ric of American civilization, 

Zachariah Chandler's father was originally a Federalist, and 
then a AVhig. The son brought with him to Detroit Whig 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 73 

synipathies and anti- slavery convictions, but no predisposition 
to political activity. For many years he refused to divert his 
energies from his mercantile pursuits, and took no share in 
party contests, except such as would be natural in the case of 
any enterj^rising citizen with a lively interest m public questions. 
He was known as a staunch "Whig, and he thoroughly identi- 
hed himself with that party when in both Michigan and the 
Union its victories seemed accidental, and its defeats certain. 
Between 1837 and 1848 his name frequently appears among 
the officers of Whig meetings, or as a member of the elec- 
tion day vigilance committees of his party, and (very rarely) 
as a ward delegate to Whig conventions. He was a regular 
contributor to the campaign fund, and he did his share of 
work at the polls. At that time the labors of election day 
were not those of persuasion merely. Partisan feeling was bitter, 
and in the population of the growing frontier city, there was a 
strong ruffianly element, which was as a rule Democratic in its 
sympathies. In close contests mobs sometimes gathered about 
the voting places, and sought by jostling and occasional assaults 
to keep away from the ballot-boxes the more timid or fastidious 
of the Whigs. On these occasions Mr. Chandler was among the 
men of strong frames, sinewy arms, and pugnacity of spirit, who 
furnished the Whig muscle to defeat this variety of "Loco-foco 
trick." He and Alanson Slieley (now a well-known Detroit mer- 
chant) were, with a few others of like strength and stature, the 
Whig body - guard who forced a way for voters through the dense 
crowd, and interposed for the rescue of the threatened. There 
is no lack of amusing anecdotes of this species of service ren- 
dered by Mr. Chandler to the Whig party; and it was at times 
attended by serious danger. In later years he credited Mr. 
Sheley with having saved his life in one of these election 
disturbances, and frequently recalled reminiscences of the mus- 
cular exploits of those days. It was not until Mr Chandler 



74 ZACIIAKIAII c:iAKDLER. 

was a Whig of nearly twenty years' standing, that he became 
that party's candidate for any office, or that he actively inter- 
ested himself in its connnittee work and practical management, 
lie cast a void xote for Harrison in 1880, before Michigan had 
been formally admitted ; he attended the monster meetings and 
sang campaign songs in tlie log cabins of 1840, and gave 
then a valid vote to Harrison ; lie denounced Tyler's political 
treason, and in 1844 cheered for Clay and Frelinghuysen ; he 
opposed General Cass in 1848, and at that time delivered his 
maiden speech, in snp'port of " Zach." Taylor ; but it was not 
until 1851 that he manifested any especial taste for or skill in 
politics, or that he allowed his name to be used as a candidate 
for position. 

The Whigs of Michigan were as a rule of New England 
extraction, and the masses of the party were always staunchly 
anti - slavery in sentiment. They charged General Cass's denun- 
ciation of the " Qiiintuple Treaty " to a disposition to seek 
Southern apj^roval by indirectly shielding the slave trade ; they 
opposed the annexation of Texas, apj^lauded the Wilmot Proviso, 
and were restive under Southern aggression and slave -holding 
arrogance at the capital. The few Congressmen whom they 
were able to elect voted uniformly for free institutions- and 
against the extension of human bondage. Michigan's first Whig 
Senator, Augustus S. Porter, while still new in his seat, opjiosed. 
alone Calhoun's resolutions in " the Enterprise case " ( a ves^ el 
employed in the coastwise slave trade had touched at Port Ham- 
ilton in the British West Indies, and some negro chattels M-ho 
formed part of her cargo had taken advantage of English law 
to assert their manhood and freedom), and cast a solitary vote 
to lay them ujion the table. Of this act Joshua R. Giddings 
wrote: "Seeing that eminent Senators around him interposed 
" no objection to the passage of the resolutions, ]\[r. Porter, 
" obeying the dictates of his own judgment and conscience, 



EAKLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 75 

" lieroicallj met the overwhelming influence arrayed against him, 
"and showed the most cogent reasons for rejecting Ihe resohi- 
" tions, by exhibiting the absurdity of the attempt to- induce the 
" British government to acknowledge the laws of slavery and the 
"slave trade to exist and be enforced within her ^rts." Both 
Mr. Porter and AVilliam Woodbridge voted against the resolution 
for the annexation of Texas. In the House of the Twenty -sev- 
enth Congress Jacob M. Howard acted with the friends of 
freedom on questions involving that issue, and in the Thirtieth 
Congress William Sj^rague, the second Whig Eepresentative, was 
openly classified as a Free Soiler. In 1849 the Whigs and Free 
Soilers united to support Flavins J. Littlejohn for Governor, and 
the Whigs of Michigan as a whole were a body of intelligent 
and conscientious anti- slavery men, and made their political 
weight felt on the side of free institutions. 

Mr. Chandler was from his boyhood radical in his opposition 
to human bondage, and for a time hoped that the Whig party 
of the North could be used to effectually resist the conspiracy 
of the slave power against the territories. His anti -slavery 
activity preceded his appearance in politics. Detroit was an 
important terminus of the "Underground Kailroad," that mys- 
terious organization Avhich so skilfully and quickly transported 
colored fugitives from the Ohio to Canadian soil, and Mr. 
Chandler, while still absorbed in business, was a frequent and 
liberal contributor to the fund for its operating expenses. He 
manifested an especial interest in tlie Crosswhite case, which 
played a conspicuous part in the fugitive slave law agitation 
preceding the compromises of 1850. Adam Crosswhite was the 
mulatto son of a slave mother who was owned by his father, a 
white farmer in Bourbon county, Kentucky. While a boy he 
was given as a servant to his half-sister, a Miss Crosswhite, who 
married a slave -dealer named Stone. Her husband subsequently 
sold her brother for $200, and Crosswhite ultimately became the 



<b ZACHAllIAH CHAKDLEK. 

chattel of a Kentucky planter named (Jiltner livini:; in (ai-roll 
county. When he had reached the age of forty- four and had 
become the fatlier of four cliildren, he learned tliat his master 
Avas planning to sell a portion of his family. The parental 
instinct drove this man to a stej) "which lie had not taken 
through any desire for jjersonal freedom, and he determined 
upon flight. Tie succeeded in getting his entire family across 
the Ohio in a skiff, and into the hands of the " Undergromid 
Kailway " managers in Indiana. There was a vigorous pursuit, 
and at Newport the fugitives were nearly captured, but Quaker 
shrewdness concealed and protected them, and after weeks of 
stn-ring adventure, during which the father and mother were 
compelled to separate, they reached Michigan, and became the 
occupants of a little cabin in the eastern part of the present 
city of Marshall. They were quiet and industrious citizens, and 
by thrift and unremitting labor connnenced making payments 
on their homestead. In thne the history of the fugitives became 
known to their neighbors, and finally some one M'ith the genuine 
spirit of the slave-driver sent to Kentucky information concern- 
ing their hiding - place. In December, 184G, Francis Troutman 
came to Marshall, ostensibly as a young lawyer in search of 
business, but in fact as (iiltncrs representative in identifying 
his fugiti^'e slaves and planning their recapture. He did his 
Avork well, through artifice and with the help of aid which he 
hired at Marshall, but did not succeed in perfectly concealing 
his ])lans. Crosswhite received warning of the impending dan- 
ger, and both armed himself and arranged with sympathizing 
friends for prompt assistance. The abduction was finally 
attempted early on the morning of Jan. 27, 1847. Troutman 
was assisted by David Giltner, Franklin Ford, and John S. Lee, 
all Kentuckians, and the four men were well armed. Ci-osswhite 
saw their a])proach, and succeeded in giving the alarm, but 
before his friends commenfced to assemble the Kentuckians broke 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. TV 

in the door of liis cabin and informed the negroes that thev 
must go at once before a magistrate where it was proi:>osed to 
prove the fact of their escape from slavery. While the preiiara- 
tion of the children for the winter s ride to the justice's office 
was in progress, a crowd, at Urst largely composed of colored 
men but soon including many whites, gathered about the cabin, 
and promptly made the fact apparent that they M'ere in no 
mood to permit the proposed restoration of human property to 
its Kentucky owners. The courage of the slave - hunters did not 
prove equal to the occasion, and finally Troutman resorted to 
argument. He harangued the jeering crowd on the sanctity of 
the fugitive slave law and the legality of Giltner's claim, even 
offering as proof of his law-abiding spirit not to take back to 
slavery a child born to the Crosswhites since their escape. The 
response to this proposition to do exact justice by sejDarating an 
infant from its mother may be imagined, and in the end the 
Kentuckians abandoned their attempt. Crosswhite had mean- 
while complained against them for trespass, and they were then 
arrested, convicted and fined $100. Money was also at once 
raised in Marshall by wdiicli the negroes were sent to Detroit 
and thence to Canada. While the excitement was at its hight 
some of the prominent citizens of Marshall joined the croAvd, 
and endeavored to restrain them from violence and to convince 
the slave - hunters of the folly of attemi)ting to defy the aroused 
indignation of the community ; they were careful, however, to 
avoid any violation of the law. Troutman met their remon- 
strances by a demand for their names. One of them replied, 
" Charles T. Gorham ; write it in capital letters." The answer 
of another was, " Oliver Cromwell C^omstock, Jr. ; take it in 
" full so that my father may not be held responsible for what I 
" do." Troutman also obtained the name of Jarvis Plurd, these 
three being well-known residents of Marshall and gentlemen of 
pecuniary responsibility, j^^othing further took place at the time, 



'» ZACIIAKlAll CHANDLER. 

and in a few days tlie Kentuckians returned to their State, 
wliicli was soon alianie Mitli wrath at tliis "JSortiiern outrage." 
Piil)lic meetings were lield to denounce the '' abolition riotei's," 
the most exaggerated accounts of tlie Marshall release were circu- 
lated and believed, the event received Congressional attention, 
and tiii:dly the State of Kentucky made an appropriation for the 
prosecution of all who were concerned in the escape of the 
Crosswhite family. Troutnian returned to INIichigan in the snm- 
mer of 1847, and brought an action to recover the value of the 
]-escued slaves, in the United States Circuit Court, against a large 
iniiid)er of defendants; the case as tried, however, was practi- 
cally a prosecution of Messrs. Gorham, Conistock, and Ilurd. 
The Kentuckians retained a large array of counsel, including 
John Xorvell, the veteran Democratic leader, Avhile the defense 
was represented by Theodore Eomeyn, "Wells <Sc C'ook, and 
Ilovej K. Clarke, with Ilalmer II. Emmons ( subsecpiently United 
States Circuit Judge) and James F. Joy as counsel. Gerrit 
Suiith also came from New York to argue the constitutional 
question involved, but the defendants' attorneys did not deem it 
prudent in a jury trial at that time to ally themselves with so 
radical an abolitionist. The case was taken up before Justice 
John MacLean, in ISiS, and attracted national attention. The 
first trial took place in the June tei-m and resulted in a disagree- 
ment of the jury. A second trial followed in November and 
December of the same year and ended in a verdict for the 
plaintiffs ci $1,926 and costs; the expenses of defending the 
suits had also imposed heavy pecuniary burdens upon the Mar- 
shall gentlemen, Mr. Gorham was then a Democrat, and found 
among his j)arty friends a strong feeling that it Avas important 
at that time and in so conspicuous a case that Michigan should 
manifest a disposition to rigidly enforce the fugitive slave law, 
as these were the years M-hen General Cass's presidential aspira- 
tions culminated, and when it was essential that his liold upon 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 79 

Southern confidence should be preserved. There was no lack of 
private expressions of Democratic sympathy with the defendants, 
and assurances were given that they should not be left to meet 
alone the heavy expenses involved, but among the Democratic 
leaders there was an unmistakable wish that the prosecution 
should be vigorously pushed for the sake of its political effect, 
and this secret pressure had a powerful influence. This case 
interested Mr, Chandler from the outset, and he watched every 
development closely. Early in the proceedings he met Mr. 
Gorliani, with whom his acquaintance was then but slight, and 
said to him, "• I am satisfied from what I have seen and learned 
" that this case is being manipulated in the interest of the Dem- 
" ocratic party, and that you are to be sacrificed to appease the 
" slave power of the South, so that Cass may not be damaged 
" by the result. Offer no compromise ; fight them through to 
" the end ; I will stand by you, and see that you do not suffer." 
lie was as good as his word, gave and helped to raise money 
for the defense, and attended the trial to tlie close. Mr. Gor- 
liam, who received no Democratic aid of importance, became 
one of his firmest and most intimate friends, and when Mr. 
Chandler was appointed Secretary of the Interior Mr. Gorham 
(who had then served five years as United States Minister at 
The Hague) became the Assistart Secretary of that department. 
Of the same period of Mr. Chandler's life this characteristic 
anecdote is told : John Sumner, one of his Jackson customers, 
passed Sunday as his guest in Detroit, and at church listened 
with him to a sermon of pro -slavery flavor, followed by a 
prayer by a visiting clergyman in which the Divine blessing 
was earnestly invoked upon the down -trodden and ilie oppressed. 
At the conclusion of the services Mr. Chandler stepped to the 
foot of the pulpit, sought an introduction to the utterer of the 
prayer, and said : " Thank you for that prayer ! It was all 
that I have heard this morning that was worth hearing." 



80 ZACHAIIIAH CHANDLER. 

Tlirougliout tlie days of Mr. Chanulers earnest fvttacliment to 
the Whig party, his anti- slavery feeling was pronomu-ed. 

In 1848 Mr. Chandler fleshed his political broadsword with 
one or more speeches in behalf of General Taylor. He had 
been an occasional particijjant in the debates of the Young 
Men's Society, the training - school for not a few of Detroit's 
eminent men, but in that year for the first time he addressed a 
miscellaneous audience on public questions. His earlier speeches 
showed the strength of the man, and despite some ruggedness 
were effective. In the State election of 1849 Mr. Chandler took 
no active part. In 1850 he was one of the AVayne county 
delegates to the Whig State convention, which met at Jackson 
on the 18th of September, and nominated a ticket headed by 
George Martin, of Kent, for Secretary of State ; the following 
campaign was a local one, arousing but little interest, and in it 
Mr. Chandler did not prominently share. On February 19, 1851, 
the Whigs of Detroit held a convention to select a city ticket 
fur tlic charter election in March, and after one informal ballot 
Mr. Chandler ^vas unanimously nominated by them for Mayor. 
This event marks the commencement of his career as a popular, 
shrewd, and successful political leader. The Democratic candidate 
for the Mayoralty was Gen. John R. Williams, a native and one 
of the foremost citizens of Detroit, the president of the Michigan 
constitutional convention of 1835, and the senior officer of the 
State militia. He had been the first Mayor of the city, and had 
held that place for six terms, and was a man of practical ability, 
the owner of a large estate, and popular with the people. His 
personal strength made him a formidable candidate, and his defeat 
not easy of accomplishment. Mr. Chandler's answer to the dele- 
gation who waited upon him with the question, " Will you run 
on the AVhig ticket against John R. Williams '( " was, " I will and 
I will beat him too," and he put all his energy into the 
campaign which followed. The Whig convention by resolution 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 81 

presented liis name to the people of Detroit as that of " a man 
" identified with its improvements, prominent in its welfare, and 
" interested in its j)rosperity," and in the Whig journals he was 
warmly commended as " known to every man, woman, and child 
"in the city as a man of strict integrity, active and industrious 
" business liabits, of great liberality of \'ieM's, both in person and 
" sentiment, and of the purest moral character ; eminently popular 
"and affable in his habits of intercourse w^ith his fellow- citizens, 
"his extensive business operations have brought him in daily 
"contact with all, through a long course of years." His election 
was also urged on the ground that he was the only candidate 
"known to be in favor of extending the various enterprises 
"of sewerage, pure water, pavements and sidewalks, just as 
" fast as the needs of a young city shall re(piire," and because 
his " course in his own business, and in relation to the .public 
"interest, has been an energetic, discreet and efficient prose- 
"cution of everything upon which he has laid his hands." 
During this canvass Mr. Chandler gave what is believed to be 
the only lecture of his life, and its marked success undoubtedly 
helpsd him at the ballot - box. It was delivered before the Young 
Men's Society upon February 25, 1851, its theme being "The 
Element of Success in Character." The newspaper report of it 
was as follows : 

The theme chosen by Mr. Chandler. "The Element of Success in 
Character," though much worn, was most successfully treated. Intending 
only to discourse from his own observations and experience, his views were 
as philosophical as they were practical. Therein was the charm and takingness 
of the lecture. Without rhetorical flourish the composition was excellent, 
severe in its simplicity and directness, nevertheless abounding in beauty. For 
originality, aptness of quotation and illustration, and felicitous use of lan- 
guage, it ranks with the choicest productions before the society. In his own 
person he furnished the very best illustration and proof of success. Such a 
lecture from any one would do good, but how much greater its influence 
when enforced by the living example the lecturer himself affords of the truths 
of his teaching. 



82 ZACriARIAH CHANDLER. 

Mr. Chandler organized liis -Hrst political battle with charac- 
teristic thoroughness and system, visited every ward, called npon 
the voters, and made a remarkable personal canvass. The result 
was that when the ballots were counted it was found that he had 
carried every j:)recinct in Detroit and had defeated his opponent 
by 349 majority in a total vote of less than 3,500. He led by 
nearly 400 the average vote of his ticket, and the Democrats 
elected at the same time a large proportion of their candidates. 
The victory was celebrated by a Whig serenade, at which the 
Mayor -elect made a modest and brief speech of thanks. This 
manifestation of personal strength -and political skill at once 
attracted State attention, and it became the source of new Whig 
hope. 

Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor continued for one year, but 
was devoid of especial incident, although even now ,^ome 
interest will be felt in this official letter to Kossuth, -which the 
Hungarian patriot answered with a note of regretful declination: 

Detkoit, January 10, 1852. 
To his E.ccellency Louis Kosnulh: 

Deah Sib, : By resolution of the Common Council, it becomes my pleasing 
duty to invite you to visit the city of Detroit and partake of its hospil;ilities. 
Much as we esteem you personally, highly as we appreciate your public and 
private worth, it is not to these alone that we do homage, but to the great 
principles which you advocate. We hail you as the champion of republican- 
ism in Europe, as God's instrument in arousing throughout the world a hatred 
of despotism, as a man who has sacriticed his all, and offers his life upon 
the altar of liberty, as a teacher of ''even bayonets to think." We, sir, have 
not been disinterested spectators of your glorious struggle lor Hungarian inde- 
pendence. We watched with most intense interest tlic commencement and 
progress of that sanguinary conflict. When we saw tlie people lihing in 
their might, the nobleman and citizen vicing with each other in devotion to 
their country's cause, emulous in sufferings and sacrifices, under su(h a 
leader, we felt that victory must crown your exertions ; and wlicn Ave saw the 
elements of Despotism uniting to crush this (to them) deksltd spirit of 
Freedom, when we saw the temporary triumphs of your oppressors, we felt 
that all was not lost— tint the Almighty Ruler of the Universe would neither 
leave nor forsake you in your low estate, that the days of despotism were 
numbered. 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 83 

Again would I invite you to visit Detroit and partake of its hospitalities 
Again would I assure you of our deep sympathy for your down-trodden 
country and I hazard notliing by the assertion that that sympathy will mani- 
fest Itself m a tangible form. Wlielher our government will act in your 
behalf as a government, is not for me to say ; whether it would be proper 
for It to do so, is not for me to discuss at this time. But that you have the 
deep sympatliy of our entire population is manifest to all. 

With great respect, I have the lionor to be your obedient servant, 
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 

Mayor of the Cihj of Detroit. 

At tlie conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor the 
Common Council of Detroit, bj unanimous vote, spread upon its 
records this resolution : 

Resolved hj the Common Council of the City of Detroil, That in retiring from 
the office of chief magistrate of this city the Hon. Zacharinh Chandler °by his 
urbanity, fidelity and zeal in the discharge of his official duties for the past 
year, merits the admiration and respect of the Council, and that in retiring to 
private life lie carries with him our cordial wishes for his happiness "and 
prosperity. 

In ^^ovember, 1852, occurred Michigan's first general election 
under the constitution of 1850. The Democratic candidate for 
Governor was Robort McClelland, who had already held that 
office during the preceding short term. General Cass alone 
surpassed this gentleman in personal strength M'ith his party in 
the State. Mr. McClelland was an upright and able man, who 
had served with distinction in Congress, and had held many 
important offices in Michigan; he subsequently l)ecame Secretary 
of the Interior in the cabinet of President Pierce. While a 
member of the House of Representatives he had assisted in 
drafting the original Wilmot Proviso, but he had grown con- 
servative with his party, and in 1852 came before the people as 
a warm champion of the compromises of 1850. Personally he 
was a man of some reserve, but affable with acquaintances and 
respected everywhere. He was renominated enthusiastically and 



84: ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

with every prospect of an easy re -election. With the sino;h. 
exception of William Woodbridge, wlio was borne into office on 
the Whig tidal -wave of 1839 and 1840, Miehigan had chosen an 
nnbroken line of Democratic (iovernors. At the first election 
after its admission to ^he Union, Stevens T. Mason liad a 
majority of 237 in a total poll of 22,299. The term for which 
Governor Woodbridge was chosen (he resigned to take a seat in 
the Senate) was followed by six snccessive Democratic victories. 
John S. Barry was elected in 1841 with 5,326 majority over his 
Whig competitor, Philo C. Fuller, and tw^o years later lie 
defeated Dr. Zina Pitcher by (),493 votes. Alphens Felcli in 
184:5 had 3,807 majority over Stephen Vickery, Whig, and In 
1847 Epaphroditus Ransom was chosen over James M. Edmunds 
by 5,()49 votes. In 1849 John S. Barry was again elected, 
defeating Flavins J. Littlejohn, Whig and Free Soiler, by 4,297 
votes in a total poll of 51,377. In 1851, which was the last 
election under the old constitution, Robert McClelland led 
Townsend E. Gidley fi,926 votes. The Liberty l)arty, as a 
distinct organization, also existed six years in Michigan, begin- 
ning in 1841 witli 1,214 votes and ending in 1847 with 2,585, 
Thus from 1841 to 1852 not only did the Democrats control 
Michigan but at every State election had a clear majority over 
all shades of opposition. 

In 1852 the chronic difficulties of the Whig situation in 
Michigan were aggravated by the fact that the Baltimore con- 
vention which nominated Scott and Graham liad condemned that 
anti- slavery sentiment of the party, which gave it all its virility 
in the West. The greater portion of the Northern Whigs with 
Mr. Greeley supported the ticket and "spat upon the platform," 
but some of them abandoned old party affiliations and joined 
the Free Soil Democrats, wdio put up llale and Julian as their 
national candidates and in Michigan nominated a full State 
ticket headed by Isaac P. Christiancy. The Whig State conven- 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 85 

tion of 1852 met at Marshall on July 1, and was called to 
order by Henry T. Backus as cliairnian of the State Central 
Committee, and presided over by Cyrus Lovell of Ionia. In 
the preliminary consultations Mr. Chandler's was the name chiefly 
urged for the head of the ticket, on account of his acquaintance 
tln-oughout the State and the political strength and capacity he 
had shown as a candidate in Detroit. This is an extract from 
the official record of the conventioii : 

On motion of W. A. Howard of Detroit a ballot was taken for Governor 
and was announced by the tellers as follows: 

Z. Chandler 76 I H. R. Williams, . . i 

H- G- Wells 7 J. R. Williams, . . . ' . ' ' i 

^- ^- Coe, 2 I George R. Pomeroy 2 

On motion of Mr. DeLand of Jackson a formal ballot was had as follows: 

Z. Chandler 95 i J. R. Williams, . . i 

H. G. Wells 2 I Blank ' . ' . " 1 

Mr. Chandler was not present and inquiry was made if it was known 
whether he would accept the nomination. Mr. Wm. A. Howard of Detroit, 
chairman of the delegation from that city, said on the part of that delegation 
that he had seen Mr. Chandler previous to leaving Detroit, and Mr. Chandler 
had said to him that he was not a candidate for any of the offices under 
consideration, that he preferred working in the ranks, but that should the 
convention see fit to nominate him he was with them. 

The result was hailed with hearty cheering, and Mr. Chand- 
ler soon formally accepted this nomination and commenced a 
most energetic personal canvass of the State. Tlie Temperance 
party made up a ticket in that year from the Democratic and 
Whig candidates, and Mr. Chandler was also retained as its 
nominee for Governor, but this action was without practical 
importance in the campaign or at the polls. During the fall of 
1852 the Whig nominee for Governor labored unremittingly. 
ITe visited all the leading towns in the State, and spoke con- 
stantly from the middle of September until the weolv before 
election. The list of his appointments included Jones ville, Cold- 



86 



ZACHARIAH CHANDLER 



water, Constantine, Cassopolis, Howell, Lansing, Eaton Rapids, 
Hastings, Allegan, Grand Kapids, Ionia, DeWitt, Corunna, Flint, 
Saginaw, Lapeer, Almont, Romeo, Mt. Clemens, Ann Arbor, 

Jackson, Marsliall, Battle 
Creek, St. Clair, and De- 
troit. His addresses were 
vigorous, entertaining and 
telling, and while he neither 
then nor afterward souglit 
for the polished sentence or 
rounded period, he showed 
that capacity for plainness 
and force of reasoning and 
for hard-hitting wliich ulti- 
mately made liis oratory so 
characteristic, and effective. 
In this seriis of speeches 
he dealt largely with the 
national quesJons of Pro- 
tection and Interiuil Im- 
provements, and also with 
the business aspects of the 
State administration. Ilis 
friends laid esjiecial stress 
upon his strength as '• a 
" business man of energy, 
" integrity and success," and 
nrged his election because 
lie bore " the reputation, 
'' well earned by a long 
" course of business oxperi- 
" ence, of being a keen and 
" shrewd business man of 



Temperance Ticket. 

For Governor, 
Zichariali Chandler. 
For Lieut. Governor, 

Andrew Parsons. 
For Secretary of State, 
(ieors;e E. l^omeroy. 
For Stite Treasurer, 
B-Tnard C. Whittemore. 
For Auditor General, 

Whitney Jones. 

For Attorney Ciencral, 

Nithaniel Bacon. 

For Sun't of Pul). Instruction, 

U. Tracy Howe. 

For Com'r of State Land Office, 

Na ban Power. 

For State BoirJ of Education. 

Isaac E. Crary, for the term of six years. 

Grove Spencer, for the terui of four years. 

Chauncey JosHn, for a term of two years. 

For Member of Congress ist District, 

William A. Howard. 

For i\I ember of Senate. 

For Representative, 

For Sheriff, 

Henry B. Holbrook. 

For Clerk. 

Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. 

For Prosecuting Attorney. 

D. Bethune Duffield. 

For Judge of Probate, 

Rufus Hosmer. 

Circuit Court Commissioner, 

John S. Newberry. 

For Register, 
Robert E. Roberts. 

Fac- SIMILE OF One of the State Tickets op 

MCHIGAN IS ]S"j~'. 



EARLY POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 87 

"the highest moral tone," and because he was "endowed with 
remarkable business talent," and had been "identified with the 
growth and interests of the State." Mr. Chandler was also 
helped in this contest bj his mercantile friendships throughout 
Michigan, and by the natural pleasure with which his fellow 
merchants saw one of their own guild fighting his way to politi- 
cal distinction along the paths so largely occupied by men of 
professional callings. As part of the organization of this canvass 
he mailed large quantities of gummed "slips" bearing his name 
to acquaintances in all parts of the State, and this is believed to 
be the first instance in which this now common weapon of 
political warfare Avas used in the Northwest. The Democrats 
found themselves compelled by this unprecedentedly vigorous 
attack to put forth most strenuous efforts, and General Cass 
labored assiduously to prevent the loss of his own State. So 
pronounced did the opposition of the veteran Democratic leader 
to the head of the Whig ticket become, that Mr. Chandler 
laughingly said to friends by way of comment upon it, "I am 
" afraid that it will take General Cass's Senatorial seat to balance 
" the account between us." 

But the national tide was then overwhelmingly against the 
Whigs, and Southern distrust of General Scott and JSTorthern 
wrath at the circumstances of his nomination brought that party 
to the Waterloo defeat from which it never recovered. Michi- 
igan cast 41,842 votes for Pierce, 33,859 for Scott, and 7,237 
for Hale. Mr. Chandler received 34,660 votes for Governor 
against 42,798 for McClelland, and 5,850 for Christiancy. He 
thus received 801 more votes than Scott ; he also led the entire 
Whig State ticket by from 500 to 4,000 votes, and received 
over 11,000 more votes than had ever been given to any Whig 
candidate for Governor. He had made a resolute fight, and 
again strikingly manifested his personal strength with the j^eople 
and his political ability. 



88 



ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 



In tlie Micliigan Legislature of 1853, which was oliosen at 
the same State election, the Democrats had a majority on joint 
ballot of forty -eight, and the AVliig minority included but seven 
Senators and twenty -one Representatives. The term of Alpheus 
Felch as United States Senator expired on March 3, 1853, and 
Charles E. Stuart was chosen as his successor. The Whigs 
gave expression to their high estimate of the value of Mr. 
Chandler's services in the preceding campaign by complimenting 
him with their united vote for the Senate, and the footings of 
the Legislative ballot for that office were : 



SENATE. 




HOUSE. 




C. E. Stuart, . 


. 27 


C. E. Stuart, . 


. 49 


Z. Chandler, . ■ . 


7 


Z. Cliandler, 


21 






II. K. Clarke, 


1 



This was the last important political action of the Whig party 
of Michigan. Before another State election its foi-mal dissolution 
had been pronounced, and the great body of its members had 
gathered around the cradle of infant Republicanism. 




CHAPTER VI. 

THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

HE darkest hour for the anti- slavery cause preceded 
the dawn of 1854. The compromises of 1850 had closed 
that long series of so-called bargains, by whicli the South 
had forced surrender after surrender from the Nortli in 
the vain hope of preserving by such artificial devices its tradi- 
tional preponderance in the government, so constantly threatened 
by the rapid development of the free States and the marvelous 
settlement of free territory. Behind the Louisiana purchase from 
Bonaparte was slavery's demand for new States to re-inforce its 
political strength. Florida was bought from Spain for the same 
reasons. The Missouri compromise of 1820 involved the admis- 
sion of a new slave State to the Union, and the organization of 
Arkansas as a slave territory ; it was the work of the advocates 
of slavery extension, and w\as practically a surrender of free ter- 
ritory to bondage, the only consideration being the exclusion of 
slavery from soil on which (judging from all the experience 
of American settlement up to that time ) it could not be estab- 
lished nor maintained. The annexation of Texas had been forced 
to add to the Union an enormous expanse of slave territory, 
capable, it was hoped, of early division into several slave States. 
Tlie Mexican War was a peculiarly Southern scheme, having as 
its real aim the conquest of an empire which was to include 
human bondage among its established institutions. The futile 
plans for the annexation of Cuba came from the same prolific 
source, and were inspired by the same need of forcing tlie 
expansion of the political power of tlie slave Soutli to jn-event 



90 ZACITARIATI CHANDLER. 

its being outstripped by the magnificent growth of the free 
North. Bnt the forces of nature prove more potent than hTinian 
devices, and the hist speech of John C. Calhoun (read fur liini 
in the Senate on March 4, 1850,) sliowed how clearly this fact 
had impressed itself on the ablest and acutest of the Southern 
statesmen. That farewell address sketched minutely the history 
and condition of the steadily - growing disparity between the 
North and the Soutli, declared in effect that the ^onth with its 
institutions could not permit Northern ascendancy, demanded 
from the North constitutional amendments " which would restore 
" to the South in substance the power she possessed of protect- 
" ing herself before the equilibrium between the sections was 
"destroyed," added that on no other basis could the South safty 
remain in the Union, and said that, if this demand was refused, 
" we would be blind not to perceive that your real objects are 
" power and aggrandizement, and infatuated not to act accord- 
"ingly." To this candid avowal of the Southern programme (ten 
years later it became evident that Mr. Calhoun had stated then 
the slave power's ultimatum) the answer was the final surrender 
of 1850. The compromise measures of that year pledged the 
United States to the subdivision of Texas into new (slave) 
States, organized Utah and New Mexico without any prohibition 
of slavery wathin their boundaries, forbade the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and set the odious machinery 
of the Fugitive Slave law in operation thjoughout the North. 
The consideration Freedom received for these concessions was the 
admission of California to the Union ( it was evident that noth- 
ing bnt invasion and conquest could ever make it a slave State) 
and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, 
amounting to a removal of the auction blocks of slave dealers 
from the shadow of tlie Capitol to the narrow streets of decay- 
ing Alexandria. 

The opiate of compromise sufficed to keep still dormant the 
conscience of the North, and the national acquiescence in this 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 91 

adjustment was emphatic. The Whig and tlie Democratic parties 
in 1852 both formally accepted in their platforms the legislation 
of 1850 as a decisive and just settlement of the slavery question, 
and they polled almost 3,000,000 votes, while for the Free Soil 
ticket, representing hostility to slavery extension and to pro- 
slavery compromises, but 155,000 votes were cast. The victory 
of the Democrats, who embodied in much the fullest degree the 
spirit of concession to Southern demands, was an overwhelm- 
ing one. They carried 27 out of the 31 States, and had 254 
electoral votes out of 296, with a clear popular majority over 
the entire opposition. In the Senate they had 14 majority out 
of a membership of 62, and in the House a majority of 84 in 
a total membership of 234, The condition of public sentiment 
then is thus described by the most accurate and graphic historian 
of that era: 

Whatever theoretic or practical objections may be justly made to the 
compromise of 18o0, there can be no doubt that it was accepted and ratitied 
by a great majority of the American people, whether in the North or in the 
South. They were intent ou business — then remarkably prosperous — on plant- 
ing, building, trading and getting gain — and they hailed with general joy the 
announcement that all the differences between the diverse "sections" had been 
adjusted and settled. The terms of settlement were, to that majority, of quite 
subordinate consequence; they wanted peace and prosperity, and were no wise 
inclined to cut each other's throats and burn each other's houses in a quarrel 
concerning (as they regarded it) only the status of negroes. The compromise 
had taken no money from their pockets ; it had imposed upon them no pecun- 
iary burdens ; it had exposed them to no personal and palpable dangers ; it 
had rather repelled the gaunt spectre of civil war and disunion (habitually 
conjured up when slavery had a point to carry), and increased the facilities 
for making money, while opening a boundless vista of national greatness, 
security and internal harmony. Especially by the trading class, and the great 
majority of the dwellers in seaboard cities, was this view cherished Avith 
intense, intolerant vehemence. . . . Whatever else the election of 1852 miglit 
have meant, there was no doubt that the popular verdict was against "slavery 
agitation " and in favor of maintaining the compromises of 1850. . . . The 
finances were healthy and the public credit unimpaired. Industry and tiade 
were signally prosperous. The tariff had ceased to be a theme of parti- 
san or sectional strife. The immense yield of gold in California during the 



92 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

four preceding years had stimulated enterprise and quickened the energies of 
labor, and its volume as yet showed no signs of diminution. And though the 
Fugitive Shive law was still denounced, and occasionally resisted by aboli 
tionists in the free States, while disunionists still plotted in secret and more 
openly prepared in Southern commercial conventions (having for their ostensi- 
ble object the establislnnent of a general exchange of the great Southern 
staples directly from their own harbors with the principal Einopean marts, 
instead of circuitously by way of New York and other Northern Atlantic 
ports) there was still a goodly majoritj- in the South, with a still larger in 
the North and Northwest, in favor of maintaining the Union and preserving 
the greatest practical measure of cordiality and fraternity between the free 
and slave States, substantially on the basis of the compromise of 1850. 

This was the l)lackest chapter in the history of the agitation 
for Freedom on this continent. Tlie era seemed to liave been 
at last reached of national snrrender to shiverj's demands, and 
of the purchase of peace by the abandonment of (with tlie 
promise never to resume) resistance to "the sum of all vil- 
lainies." John Quincj Adams had said that up to his day "the 
preservation, propagation, and ])erpetuation of slavery " had ev(.'r 
been "the animating spirit" of the American government. 
Daniel Webster had bitterly declared in 1848 that there was no 
Korth in American politics, and that the South absolutely con- 
trolled the government. Certainly, in 1853, the surface of the 
political situation fully justified the indignant words of Gerrit 
Smith : " Were this government desjjotic and her religion 
"heathen, there might be some hope of republicanizing her 
" politics and Christianizing her religion ; but now that she has 
"turned into darkness the greatest of all political lights and the 
"greatest of all religious lights, what hope is left for her!'"' 

It was at this juncture, when its triumph appeared to be 
complete, that slavery fatally overreached itself. The Missouri 
compromise of 182(t, which forever prohibited slavery in all of 
the original Louisiana territory north of 30 degrees, 3(1 minutes 
of north latitude, had remained unquestioned upon the statute 
books for a generation. The South had received the full bt'iie- 



"UNDER THE OAKS.' 93 

fits of its share of that bargain, which added Arkansas and 
Missouri to the ranks of tlie slave States. In the interminable 
discussions of 1850 there had been no suggestion that the com- 
promise measures of that year were intended to either disturb or 
supersede the Missouri compact, and the first message of Frank- 
lin Pierce congratulated the country on the sense of repose and 
security in the public mind which the compromise measures had 
restored, and added the pledge, " this repose is to suffer no 
shock during my official term, if I have power to avert it." 
Before two months had elapsed, the North heard with astonish- 
ment and indignation the doctrine laid down in Congress by the 
representatives of the slave power that the Missouri compromise 
had been abrogated by the measures of 1850, and that the vast 
domain between the Missouri and the Kocky Mountains, rich in 
all material and political possibilities, was open to slaveholding 
settlement. A few days more passed, and it was discovered that 
this claim was receiving the powerful support of the adminis- 
tration, and that it would also be championed by Stephen A 
Douglas, with his formidable energy, personal influence, and rare 
skill in debate, as a step towards the vindication of his dogma 
of " Popular Sovereignty." Of the memorable four months' 
struggle over this issue, the following is a sketch in outline : 

Soon after the Thirty -third Congress assembled, in Decem- 
ber, 1853, Senator A. C. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a bill to 
organize the Territory of Nebraska out of the magnificent region 
between Missouri and Iowa and the Rocky Mountains. It was 
referred to the Committee on Territories, and was reported back 
by Senator Douglas with amendments, none of which, however, 
proposed to repeal the prohibition of slavery included in the 
Missouri compromise. Upon this, Senator Archibald Dixon, of 
Kentucky, a Whig who declared that on the question of slavery 
he knew no Whiggery and no Democracy, but was a pro-slavery 
man, gave notice that he should offer an amendment, providing 



94: ZACILVRIAII CHANDLER. 

that the act of 1820 should not be so construed as to apply to 
the territory contemplated by this act, nor to any other territory 
of the United States. Senator Douglas thereupon had the bill 
reconnnitted, and subsequently reported in an entirely different 
foi-m, creating hoo territories, Kansas and Nebraska, instead of 
one, and including the provision that all questions iDcrtaining to 
slavery in the territories and in the new States to be formed 
therefrom should be left to the action of the people thereof 
through their appropriate representatives, and that the provisions 
of the constitution and laws of the United States in I'cspect to 
fugitives from service should be carried into faithful execution 
in all the organized territories the same as in the States. This 
was, equally with Senator Dixon's proposition, a direct violation 
of the provision of the Missouri compromise, which was in these 
words ( Section 8 ) : " That in all that territory ceded by France 
"to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies 
"north of 30 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, not 
"included within the limits of the State contemplated by this 
" act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than as the 
"punishment of crime, shall be and is hereby forever pro- 
"hibited." In the last report, however, the pill Avas sugar-coated 
with Mr. Douglas's catch -word of "Popular Sovereignty." 

The territory which the Kansas - Nebraska bill was intended 
to organize was included in this quoted prohibition. That bill 
as introduced, in the section that provided for the election of a 
delegate to Congress from Kansas, had the stipulation : 

That tlie constitution and all laws of the United States, which arc not 
locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within said territory 
as elsewhere in the United States. 

To this the amended bill added the following reservation : 

Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri 
into the Union, approved March G, 1820, whi(h was superseded by the prin- 
ciples of the lcii;islation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measure, 
and is declared inoperative. 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 95 

A similar provision with a like reservation was added to the 
section providing for the election of a delegate from Nebraska. 
A prolonged and brilliant debate followed in the Senate, and 
finally in place of the original reservation the following was 
adopted, on motion of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, bj a vote 
of 35 to 10: 

Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri 
into tlie Union, approved March G, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the 
principle of non - intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and 
territories, as recognized by the legislation in 1850 (commonly called the com- 
promise measure), is hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true 
intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or 
State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject 
only to the constitution of the United States. 

Senator Chase then moved to add to the above the following: 

Under which the people of the territory, through their appropriate repre- 
sentatives, may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein. 

This amendment was voted down, yeas 10, nays 36, the Senate 
thus declaring its understanding that the people of the new terri- 
tories should not be allowed to prohibit slavery previous to their 
admission as a State. The bill passed on the morning of March 
4th, by a vote of 37 to 14. In the House a separate bill had 
been introduced, but when it came up for consideration the 
Senate bill was substituted for it — by a jDarliamentary trick its 
opponents were prevented from ofEering amendments — and the 
bill was passed, yeas 113, nays 100. It went back to the Senate, 
in form as an original measure, but in effect the Senate bill, and 
on May 26 was finally passed by that body and was ajjproved 
by President Pierce on May 30. The debate had been a memor- 
able one ; for the friends of Liberty, while they resisted to the 
last the surrender of what had been once bought for Freedom, 
joyfully recognized the fact that this act would in its logic make 
every compromise repealable, and thus kill in the womb all 
future political bargainings. Benjamin F. Wade said in the 



^^ ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

Senate that ''the violation of the plighted faith of tlie nation 
" would i)reeii)itate a conflict between liberty and .slavery ; and 
" that, in such a contiict, it will not be liberty that will die in 
" the nineteenth centnry. You may call me an Abolitionist if 
" yon will ; I care little for that, for if an undying hatred to 
" slavery constitutes an Abolitionist, I am that Abolitionist. If 
" man's determination at all times and at all hazards, to the last 
" extremity, to resist the extension of slavery, or any other 
" tyranny, constitutes an Abolitionist, I before God believe my- 
" self to be that Abolitionist." William II. Seward said : " You 
" are setting an example which abrogates all compromises. . . . 
" It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them now ; 
" but the proposition has come from another quarter — f r(;m an 
" adverse one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of 
" compromise are passing from under my feet, and they are 
" now, without agency of my own, taking hold again on the 
'' rock of the constitution. It shall be no fault of mine if they 
" do not remain firm." Charles Sumner closed his protest against 
this removal of " the landnuirks of freedom " by declaring the 
measure to be " at once the \vorst and best bill on which Con- 
'^ gress ever acted — the worst inasmuch as it is a present victory 
" for slavery, and the best bill because it prepares the M'ay for 
" the ' All hail hereafter,' when slavery nmst disappear. Sorrow- 
" fully I bend before the wrong you are about to perpetrate. 
" Joyfully I welcome all the promises of the future." 

The response of the Nortli to the abrogation of the Missouri 
compromise justiiied these predictions. To this overthrow of a 
solemn compact for the purpose of opening a vast empire to 
attempts at slave colonization, men of every shade of anti- slavery 
conviction made answer by eagerly seeking ways of uniting in 
effective resistance to such a crime against civilization. Amid an 
excitement, which grew profounder as the contest progressed, and 
which was fed by the press, the pulpit, and the lyceum, and was 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 97 

organized by public meetings, tlie demand became daily stronger 
for political action on the basis of uncompromising liostility^to 
the aggressions of the slave power. Before the Kansas - Nebraska 
controversy was finished the Whig party had ceased to exist, the 
Democracy had become a pro -slavery organization, the era of 
compromise had passed away, and the young giant of Eepubli- 
canism stood on the threshold of the territories commanding 
slavery to stand back. This vast and far-reaching political 
revolution was accomplished through the wholesale sacrifice of 
cherished ties by the friends of free institutions and through 
their hearty union in the new party of Freedom. The State in 
which this fusion of anti- slavery opinion into Republicanism 
was first accomplished was Michigan, and the Eepublican party 
as a distinct organization was born and christened under the oaks 
of Jackson on the Cth of July, 1854. Political opinion in that 
State was peculiarly ripe for this step. Its Whigs were with but 
rare exceptions staunch anti -slavery men. Even Senator Cass's 
great influence had failed to keep all the Democrats submissive 
to pro -slavery compromises. The Free Soilers were strong in 
^p^acter - and several thousands in number. Thus when the 
|opportunity came for decisive action it found the men ready. 
The Free Democrats of Michigan, encouraged by the increase 
in their vote in 1852, and responding to an appeal of the "In- 
dependent Democrats in Congress " ( signed by Salmon P. Chase, 
Charles Sumner, Joshua R. Giddings, Gerrit Smith, Edward Wade, 
and Alexander De Witt) for popular resistance to the attack on 
the Missouri compact, held the first political convention of 1854 
in that State. It met in Jackson, on February 22d, under a call 
issued at Detroit on January 12, and signed by U. Tracy Howe, 
Hovey K. Clarke, Samuel Zug, Silas M. Holmes, S. A. Baker, 
S. B. Thayer, S. P. Mead, J. W. Childs, and Erastus Hussey, 
forming the state central committee of that party. The con- 
vention was called to order by Hovey K. Clarke, and it organized 



98 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

with Wm. T. Howell of Hillsdale as president. The committee 
on resolutions consisted of Hovey K. Clarke, Fernando C. Beaman, 
Kinsley S. Bingham, E. Hussey, Nathan Power, D. C. Leach, 
and L. Moore, and a connnittee of twenty -four was appointed to 
nominate a State ticket. The committee on resolutions reported 
a platform prepared by Hovey K. Clarke, declaring freedom 
national and slavery sectional, and denouncing the attempt to 
repeal the Missouri compromise as an infamous outrage upon 
justice, humanity and good faith. The nominating committee 
submitted this list of candidates for the State offices : 

Governor — Kinsley S. Bingham. 

Lieutenant - Governor — Nathan Pierce. 

Secretary of State — Lovell Moore. 

State Treasurer — Silas M. Holmes. 

Auditor - General — Philotus Harden. 

Attorney - General — Hovey K. Clarke. 

Commissioner of Land Office — Seymour B. Treadwell. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — Elijah H. Pilcher. 

Member of Board of Education — Isaac P. Christiancy. 

Kinsley S. Bingham w^as a f)ioneer farmer of Central Michi- 
gan, one of the very best representatives of his influential class, 
and a man of sterling sense, strong convictions, and excellent 
abilities. He had served with honor in the State Legislature, 
and had as a Democratic Congressman sustained alone in his 
State delegation the Wilmot Proviso. His nomination was in 
itself the strongest possible appeal to the anti -slavery Democrats 
of the State. The ticket also had upon it the names of gentle- 
men who had in the past acted with the Whigs. The conven- 
tion ratified the reports of its committees, and after listening to 
a few speeches adjourned. It w^as a significant fact that two 
of the speakers were conspicuous Whigs, Henry Barns of the 
Detroit Trihune^ and Ilalmer II. Emmons ; Mr. Emmons was 
especially emphatic in his expression of the hope that before the 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 99 

day of election " all the friends of freedom would be able to 
" stand upon a common platform against the party and platform 
" of the slave propagandists." 

Cotemporaneously with this organized action of the Free 
Soilers, but outside of it and of all party Hues, there were held 
many public meetings throughout Michigan to denounce the 
Kansas - Nebraska act. Some of these were county conventions 
in form, and others were local mass - meetings. One of the latter 
took place at Detroit on the 18th of February ; Zachariah Chand- 
ler was among the many prominent citizens who signed its call, 
and was one of the five speakers from its platform (the others 
were Jonathan Kearsley, Samuel Barstow, James A. Yan Dyke, 
and D. Bethune Dufiield). The tone of all the speeches was 
wholesomely defiant, and this was also- true of the resolutions 
adopted which were reported by a committee consisting of 
Samuel Barstow, Jacob M. Howard, Joseph Warren, James M. 
Edmunds, and Henry H. Le Roy. The effect of tliis demonstra- 
tion in the metropolis of the State upon public opinion was 
marked, and it and like non-partisan action did much to pave 
the way for the fusion of July. Powerful contributions to the 
same movement came also from the strong and growing current 
of sentiment in that direction throughout the entire North, and 
from the significant results of many of the spring elections. 
Both New Hampshire and Connecticut elected anti - administra- 
tion candidates in March and April, and in Michigan anti -slavery 
coalitions were successful in quite a number of municipal con- 
tests, notably in the important city of Grand Eapids which chose 
Wilder D. Foster mayor on that issue. 

Throughout the spring of 1854: many private conferences 
(Mr. Cliandler sharing in them) were held in Michigan among 
representative men of the Wliigs, Free Soilers, and Anti- 
Nebraska Democrats to discuss the feasibility of union and 
consider plans for its accomplishment. The early action of the 



100 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER 

Free Soilers was in fact a practical obstacle in the way. That 
party represented but a small element ot" the anti- slavery sen- 
timent of Michigan, and neither the sincerity of its piniDose, nor 
its tender of the olive branch by placing Whig names on its 
State ticket, nor the soundness of its platform on the slavery 
question could counterbalance the many reasons why the AVhigs 
woukl not surrender a time -honored organization and march 
bodily into the camp of what they had always regarded as a 
faction of impi'acticables. There was also mnch in the State 
situation to encourage Whig hope, for the party there was 
almost solidly anti- slavery and certain to profit by the weaken- 
ing of the enemy through the revolt of the Anti - Nebraska 
Democrats. But there was a vigor of principle and an intelli- 
gence of sentiment in the Wliig party of Michigan which 
encouraged the belief that it would not subordinate essentials to 
a name, and that it would assent to an anti -slavery union under 
conditions not involving any seeming self -degradation. In fact 
it was called upon to make the only real sacrifice involved in 
the desired coalition. The Free Soilers were powerless, and had 
nothing to lose and everything to gain in the new movement ; 
the Anti - Nebraska Democrats were condemned by, and without 
influence in, their own party; but the Whigs were strong in 
numbers, and were asked to surrender a historic name, honorable 
traditions and reviving hope for a doubtful experiment. But 
tliat the hour demanded precisely this act of self-denial was 
clear, and men of resolution and principle grappled with the 
problem of making it possible. Altogether the most important 
work in that direction was done by Joseph Warren, editor of 
the Detroit Trihime, then an influential WJiig paper, which 
began the publication in its columns of a series of vigorous and 
well-considered articles advocating the organization of a new 
party composed of all the opponents of slavery extension. This 
policy accorded with the drift of public opinion, and, involving 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 101 

as it did the disbanding of both the Whig and Free Soil organ- 
izations, avoided any appearance of surrender and humiliation. 
Public and private discussion made its wisdom plainer, and the 
proof of its feasibility was followed by steps for its accomplish- 
ment. An indispensable preliminary was the withdrawal of the 
"Free Democrat" ticket, as this would remove the chief stum- 
bling-block in the path of the anti - slavery Whigs. Mr. Warren, 
whose personal labors at this juncture were of the utmost value, 
writes with reference to the spirit with which the Free Soil 
leaders met the demand for this step : 

One of the first and cliiefest obstacles to be overcome in order to ensure 
the co-operation of all the opponents of slavery extension in the movement 
looking to the organization of a new party, was to induce the Free Soilers 
to consent to the withdrawal of their ticket from the field, thus placing 
themselves on the same footing as the Whigs (who as yet had made no 
nominations), free from all entangling alliances and in a position to act in a 
way likely to prove most effectual. But formidable as this obstacle seemed to 
be in the beginning, it was promptly removed through the wisely directed 
and patriotic efforts of the prominent leaders of the party. Such men as 
Hovey K. Clarke, Silas M. Holmes, Kinsley S. Bingham, Seymour Treadwell, 
all on the Free Soil ticket, F. C. Beaman, S. P. Mead, L P. Christiancy, 
W. W. Murphy, Whitney Jones, U. Tracy Howe, Jacob S. Farrand, Rev. S. 
A. Baker, proprietor, and Rev. .Jabez Fox, editor of the Detroit Free Demo- 
crat, were especially active and influential in preparing the way for this 
necessary preliminary step. 

This readiness of the Free Soil leaders to make the sacrifices 
required on their part bore prompt fruit. The Kansas - Nebraska 
bill was passed by the House on the 22d of May, and three 
days after a stirring call was issued for a mass convention of the 
Free Democrats of Michigan at Kalamazoo on June 21st. The 
village of Kalamazoo had long been a center of anti -slavery 
sentiment, and the agitation against the pending bill had been 
especially vigorous there and in the surrounding' counties. The 
call was full of fiery denunciation of the slavery propagandists, 
and its vigor and vim showed how thoroughly the people were 
aroused. The convention itself, owino: to bad weather and other 



102 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

inauspicious circumstances, was not a large one, but its character 
and action were significant and inq^ortant. Among tliose in 
attendance were four of the candidates on the '' Fi-ee Demo- 
crat" ticket, including Kinsley S. Bingham. M. A. McNaughton 
was made president, and Hovey K. Clarke, from the committee 
for that purpose, reported a series of resolutions reviewing the 
disgraceful proceedings of the session of Congress, denouncing the 
Kansas - Nebraska bill as the crowning act of a series of aggres- 
sions by which slavery had become the great national interest of 
the country, and appealing to the virtue of the peoj^le " to 
"■ declare in an unmistakable tone tlicir will that slavery aggres- 
" sion upon their rights shall go no further, that there shall be 
" no compromise with slavery, that there shall be no more slave 
" States, that there shall be no slave territory, that the Fugitive- 
" Slave law shall be repealed, that the abominations of slavery 
" shall no longer be perpetrated under the sanctions of the federal 
" constitution, and that they will make their will effective by 
" driving from every place of official power the public servants 
" who have so shamelessly betrayed their trust, and by putting 
" in their places men who are honest and capable, men who 
" will be faithful to the constitution and the great claims of 
" humanity." A final resolution directed the appointment of a 
committee of sixteen, two from each judicial district, to consult 
with others for the organization of a new party animated and 
guided by the principles expressed in the resolutions, and it 
empowered that committee, in case of the establishment of an 
" efficient organization " of such a character, to surrender the 
" distinctive organization " of the " Free Democrats " and with- 
draw the State ticket nominated on the 22d of February. This 
action, reached after a vigorous discussion, cleared the way for 
the coalition. 

A few days before the meeting of the Kalamazoo convention, 
but after its probable course had become apparent, a call had 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 103 

appeared in the columns of the Detroit Tribune (it was copied, 
after the Kalamazoo action, by the Detroit Free Democrat also) 
for a mass - meeting at Jackson, on July 6, of all the opponents 
of slavery extension. This was signed by several thousand lead- 
ing citizens of Michigan, in all parts of the State, including 
Zachariah Chandler, Jacob M. Howard, H. P. Baldwin, H. K. 
Clarke, Franklin Moore, John Owen, Jacob S. Farrand, Shnbael 
Conant, J. J. Bagley, E. B. AVard, E. W. King, James Burns, 
Charles M. Croswell, Allen Potter, Austin Blair, Isaac P. Chris- 
tiancy, Chas. T. Gorham, and others. The signatures filled two 
newspaper columns in close type, and it was announced on the 
last day that several hundred names had been received too late 
for publication. The text of this document was as follows: 

TO THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN. 

A great wrong has been perpetrated. The slave power of this country has 
triumphed. Liberty is trampled under foot. The Missouri compromise, a 
solemn compact, entered into by our fathers, has been violated, and a vast 
territory dedicated to freedom has been opened to slavery. 

This act, so unjust to the North, has been perpetrated under circumstan- 
ces which deepen its perfidy. An administration placed in power by Northern 
votes has brought to bear all the resources of executive corruption in its 
support. 

Northern Senatore and Representatives, in the face of the overwhelming 
public sentiment of the North, expressed in the proceedings of public meet- 
ings and solemn remonstrances, without a single petition in its favor on their 
table, and not daring to submit this great question to the people, have yielded 
to the seductions of executive patronage, and, Judas-like, betrayed the cause 
of liberty ; while the South, inspired by a dominant and grasping ambition, 
has, without distinction of party, and with a unanimity almost entire, deliber- 
ately trampled under foot the solemn compact entered into in the midst of a 
crisis threatening to the peace of the Union, sanctioned by the greatest names 
of our history, and the binding force of which has, for a period of more than 
thirty years, been recognized and declared by numerous acts of legislation. 
Such an outrage upon liberty, such a violation of plighted faith, cannot be 
submitted to. This great wrong must be righted, or there is no longer a 
North in the councils of the nation. The extension of slavery, under the folds 
of the American flag, is a stigma upon liberty. The indefinite increase of 
slave representation in Congress is destructive to that equality between free- 
men which is essential to the permanency of the Union. 



104 ZACIIAIJIAII CHANDLER. 

The safety of the Union — the rights of the Nortlx — the interests of free 
hibor — tlie destiny of a vast territory and its untold millions for all coming 
time — and finally, the high aspirations of humanity for universal freedom, all 
are involved in the issue forced upon the country by the slave power and its 
plastic Northern tools. 

In view, therefore, of the recent action of Congress upon this subject, and 
the evident designs of the slave power to attempt still further aggressions upon 
freedom — we invite all our fellow citizens, without reference to former politi- 
cal associations, who think that the time has arrived for a union at the North 
to protect liberty from being overthrown and downtrodden, to assemble m 
mass convention on Thursday, the 6th of July next, at 4 o'clock, p. m., at 
Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be thoiight best to concentrate 
the popular sentiment of this State against the aggression of the slave power. 

The response to this appeal was the gatliering at Jackson, on 
a bright mid - summer ' day, of hnndreds of influential men from 
all parts of Michigan, representing every shade of anti- slavery 
feeling, and tlioroughly alive to the importance . of the occasion 
and the difficulty of the task projected. The convention far 
outstripped in numbers the preparations for its accommodation, 
and, after filling to excess the largest hall in the town, it 
adjourned to meet in a beautiful oak grove, siiuatcd between 
the village and the county race -course, on a tract of land then 
known as " Morgan's Forty." The growth of Jaclison ]ias smce 
covered this historic ground with buildings, and the spacious 
grove has dwindled to a few scattered oaks shading the city's 
busy streets. A rude platform erected for sj)eakers was appro- 
priated by tlie officers of the convention, and about it thronged 
a mass of earnest men, the vanguard of the Republican host. 
In a body so incongruous and unwieldy, confused jiurposes, dis- 
cordant views, and conflicting interests were unavoidable, but the 
universal fervor of tlie fusion sentiment formed a broad founda- 
tion for liarmonious action, and the convention did not lack for 
slirewd and sagacious jiolitical managers with tlic skill to direct 
earnest effort into practical channels. Such differences of ojiinion 
as there were on questions of policy and as to candidates 
exhausted themselves in private conferences and secret commit- 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 105 

tee deliberations, and the convention itself did its business with 
promptness, without discord, and amid a genuine enthusiasm. 

Its temporary chairman was the Hon. Levi Baxter, of Jones- 
ville, a pioneer settler of Southern Michigan, and the founder of 
a family of marked prominence in that State. He was well 
known as the master spirit of many important business enter- 
prises, had been a Whig and then a Free Soiler, and had been 
elected to the State Senate by a h^-al coalition of both those 
parties in his own county. After a brief address by Mr. Baxter, 
Jeremiah Van Renselaer was chosen temporary secretary, and 
this committee on permanent organization was appointed : Sam- 
uel Barstow, C. H. Yan Cleeck, Isaac P. Christiancy, G. ^¥. 
Burchard, Lovell Moore, James W. Hill, Henry W, Lord, and 
Newell Avery. While they were deliberating, the convention 
adjourned to the oak grove, and there listened to brief speeches 
until a permanent organization was effected with the following 
gentlemen as officers of the first Republican State convention 
ever held : 

President — David S. Walbridge, of Kalamazoo. 

Vice-Presidents — F. C. Beaman, Oliver Johnson, Rudolph Diepenbeck. 
Thomas Curtis, C. T. Gorham, Pliny Power, Emanuel Mann, Charles Draper, 
George Winslow, Norman Little, John McKinney, W. W. Murphy. 

Secretaries — J. Van Renselaer, J. F. Conover, A. B. Turner. 

Mr. Walbridge was a prominent merchant of Central Michi- 
gan, and an exceedingly active and earnest Whig. He had 
already served several terms in tiie Legislature and was after- 
ward a Republican Congressman for four years from Michigan. 
His selection as president of the convention was a wise recog- 
nition of the important Whig element in its membership. The 
great throng next separated into representatives of the four 
congressional districts, and chose the following committee on 
resolutions : Jacob M. Howard, Austin Blair, Donald Mclnlyre, 
John Hilsendegen, Charles Noble, Alfred R. Metealf, John W. 



106 ZACHAHIAII CHANDLER. 

Tunier, Levi Baxter, Marsh Cliddings, E. llii.ssej, A. Williams, 
John McKinney, Chas. Draper, M. L. Higgius, J. E. Siinmonds, 
Z. B. Knight. The chairmanship of this important committee 
naturally fell to Jacob M. Howard, of Detroit, a lawyer of 
eminence and rare powers, the lirst Whig C^ongressman from 
^[ichigan, and a man of deservedly high reputation for intellect- 
ual vigor and personal integrity. lie was afterward for nine 
yeai-s a Republican Senator, and at Washington earned national 
distinction as the author of the Thirteenth Amendment and 
by much able and laborious public service. Mr. Howard had 
prepared a draft of a platform in advance of the convention, and 
the committee met to consider it under a clump of trees on the 
outskirts of the grove (at the present intersection of Franklin and 
Second streets in the city of Jackson). Ko material modifications 
were made in the document, which was adopted substantially as 
written by Mr. Howard, except that Austin Blair proposed to 
add two resolutions relating to State affairs purely. As to the 
expediency of this action there was some difference of opinion, 
and finally Mr. Blair submitted his propositions as a minority 
report, and the convention adopted and thus added them to the 
main platform. Over the resolution formally christening the new 
party "Republican," there was no especial discussion. There had 
already been suggestions made throughout the country that, for 
the new organization evidently about to be born, it might be 
expedient to revive " the name of that wise conservative party, 
" whose aim and purpose were the welfare of the whole Union 
" and the stainless honor of the American name." * The his- 
tory of this resolution in the Howard platform has been thus 
given with undoubted correctness by Mr. Joseph Warren in a 
published letter: "The honor of having named and christened 
" the party the writer has always claimed and now insists 
"belongs jointly to Jacob M. Ploward, Horace Greeley and him- 



Israel Washburn in an address at Bangor, Me. 



•' UNDER THE OAKS." 107 

"self. Soon after tlie writer began to advocate, through the 
" cokmins of the Trihune, the organization of all opponents 
" of slavery into a single party, Horace Greeley voluntarily 
" opened a correspondence with him in regard to this movement, 
" in which he frankly communicated his views and gave him 
" many valuable suggestions as to the wisest course to be 
" pursued. This correspondence was necessarily very short, as 
" it began and ended in June, it being only five weeks from 
" the repeal of the compromise, May 30, to the Jackson con- 
" vention. In his last letter, received only a day or two before 
" it was to assemble, Mr. Greeley suggested to him ' Republican,' 
" according to his recollection, but, as Mr. Howard contended, 
" ' Democrat - Republican,' as an appropriate name for the pro- 
"• posed new party. But this is of comparatively little conse- 
" quence. The material fact is, that this meeting the writer's 
" cordial approval, he gave Mr. Greeley's letter containing the 
" suggestions to Mr. Howard on the day of the convention, 
" after he had been appointed chairman of the committee on 
" resolutions, and strongly advised its adoption. This was done 
" and the platform adopted." 

While the committee on resolutions was absent, the conven- 
tion was addressed by Zachariah Chandler, Kinsley S. Bingham, 
and a number of others. ]^o complete record was made of Mr. 
Chandler's remarks upon this occasion, but the report of the 
convention in the Detroit Free Democrat, prepared by its secre- 
tary, contains this : " We would say in parenthesis that an 
" allusion most generously made by Mr. Chandler to Mr. Bing- 
" ham drew from the crowd three rousing cheers for the latter 
" gentleman." The Jackson Citizen also gave the following 
reference to Mr. Chandler's remarks : " When in the course of 
" his speech he gave a brief history of the Wilmot Proviso in 
"Michigan, alluding to the anti- slavery resolutions passed b}^ a 
" Democratic State convention in 1849, and the resolutions of 



108 ZAClIAlilAlI C'llAiNDLEK. 

'' instructions to our Senators and Representatives in Congress 
'' by the Legislature on the same subject, and tlieii exchiinied 
"that 'not one of our Representatives had ever been hooiest 
" enough to carry them out except Kinsley S. Bingham,' a spark 
" of enthusiasm tired the crowd, the shout of approbation ran 
" through the vast assembly, and, if any doubt had pi-eviously 
" existed as to who sh(juid be the nuui, that doubt was then 
" removed." These addresses were followed by the report of the 
committee on resolutions, which was read by Mr. Howard amid 
fre(i;ient outbursts of applause, and \vas as follows: 

The freemea of Michigan, assembled in convention in pursuance of a 
spontaneous call, emanating from various parts of the State, to consider upon 
the measures which duty demands of us, as citizens of a free State, to take in 
reference to the late acts of Congress on the subject of slavery and its antici- 
pated further extension, do 

Resolve, That the institution of slavery except in punishment of crime is 
a great moral, social and political evil; that it was so regarded by the fathers 
of the republic, the founders and best friends of the Union, by the heroes and 
sages of the Revolution who contemplated and intended its gradual and peace- 
ful extinction as an element hostile to the liberties for which they toiled; that 
its history in the United States, the experience of men best acquainted with 
its workings, the dispassionate confession of those who are interested in it; its 
tendency to relax the vigor of industry and enterprise inherited in the white 
man ; the very surface of the earth where it subsists ; the vices and immorali- 
ties which are its natural growth ; the stringent police, often wanting in 
humanity and revolting to the sentiments of every generous heart, which it 
demands; the danger it has already wrought and the future danger which it 
portends to the security of the Union and our constitutional liberties — all 
incontestably prove it to be such evil. Surely that institution is not to be 
strengthened and encouraged against which Washington, the calmest and wisest 
of our nation, bore unequivocal testimony; as to which Jefferson, filled with 
a love of liberty, exclaimed: "Can the liberties of a nation be ever tliought 
" secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the 
" minds of the people that their liberties are the oift of God ; that they arc 
"not to be violated but Avitli His wrath? Indeed, I. tremble for my country 
"when I reflect that God is just; tliat Ills justice cannot sleep forever; that, 
"considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the 
"wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that it 
" may become probable by supernatural interference ! The Almighty has no 
" attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest ! " And as to which 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 109 

another eminent patriot in Virginia, on the close of the Revolution, also ex- 
claimed: "Had we turned our eyes inwardly when we supplicated the Father 
"of Mercies to aid the injured and oppressed, when we invoked the Author 
"of Righteousness to attest the purity of our motives and the justice of our 
"cause, and implored the God of battles to aid our exertions in its defense, 
"should we not have stood more self -convicted than the contrite publican?" 
We believe these sentiments to be as true now as they were then. 

Resolved, That slavery is a violation of the rights of man as man; that 
the law of nature, which is tlie law of liberty, gives to no man rights superior 
to those of another; that God and nature have secured to each individual the 
inalienable right of equality, any violation of which must be the result of 
superior force; and that slavery therefore is a perpetual war upon its victims; 
that whether we regard the institution as first originating in captures made in 
war, or the subjection of the debtor as the slave of his creditor, or the forci- 
ble seizure and sale of children by their parents or subjects by their king, and 
whether it be viewed in this country as a " necessary evil " or otherwise, we 
find it to be, like imprisonment for debt, but a relic of barbarism as well as 
an element of weakness in the midst of the State, inviting the attack of exter- 
nal enemies, and a ceaseless cause of internal apprehension and alarm. Such 
are the lessons taught us, not only by the histories of other commonwealths, 
but by that of our own beloved country. 

Resolved, That the history of the formation of the constitution, and 
particularly the enactment of the ordinance of July 13, 1787, prohibiting 
slavery north of the Ohio, abundantly shows it to have been the purpose of 
our fathers not to promote but to prevent the spread of slavery. And we, 
reverencing their memories and cherishing free republican faith as our richest 
inheritance, which we vow, at whatever expense, to defend, thus publicly 
proclaim our determination to oppose by all the powerful and honorable means 
in our power, now and henceforth, all attempts, direct or indirect, to extend 
slavery in this country, or to permit it to extend into any region or locality 
in which it does not now exist by positive law, or to admit new slave States 
into the Union. 

Resolved, That the constitution of the United States gives to Congress 
full and complete power for the municipal government of the territories 
thereof, a power which from its nature cannot be cither alienated or abdicated 
without yielding up to the territory an absolute political independence, which 
involves an absurdity. That the exercise of this power necessarily looks to 
the formation of States to be admitted into the Union; and on the question 
whether they shall be admitted as free or slave States Congress has a right to 
adopt such prudential and preventive measures as the principles of liberty 
and the interests of the whole country require. That this question is one of 
the gravest importance to the free States, inasmuch as the constitution itself 
creates an inequality in the apportionment of representatives, greatly to the 
detriment of the free and to tlie advantage of the slave States. This question, 
so vital to the interests of the free States (but which we are told by certain 



110 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER 

political doctors of modern times is to be treated with utter indifference) is 
one whicli we hold it to be our right to discuss; which we hold it the duty of 
Congress in every instance to determine in unequivocal language, and in a 
manner to prevent the spread of slavery and the increase of such unociual 
representation. In short, we claim that the North is a party to the new barcjain, 
and is entitled to have a voice and influence in settling its terms. And in view of 
the ambitious designs of the slave power, we regard the man or the party 
wlio would forego this right, as untrue to the honor and interest of the North 
and unworthy of its support. 

Resolved, That the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," contained in the 
recent act of Congress for the creation of the territories of Nebraska and Kan- 
sas, thus admitting slavery into a region till then sealed against it by law, 
equal in extent to the thirteen old States, is an act unprecedented in the history 
of the country, and one which must engage the earnest and serious attention 
of every Northern man. And as Northern freemen, independent of all former 
parties, we here hold this measure up to the public execration, for the 
following reasons: 

That it is a plain departure from the policy of the fathers of the 
republic in regard to slavery, and a wanton and dangerous frustration of their 
purposes and their hopes. 

That it actually admits and was intended to admit slavery into said 
territories, and thus (to use the words applied by Judge Tucker, of Virginia, 
to the fathers of that commonwealth) "sows the seeds of an evil which like 
"a leprosy hath descended upon their posterity with accumulated rancor, 
"visiting the sins of the fathers upon succeeding generations." That it was 
sprung upon the country stealthily and by surprise, without necessity, without 
petition, and without previous discussion, thus violating the cardinal principle 
of republican government, which requires all legislation to accord with the 
opinions and sentiments of the people. 

That on the part of the South it is an open and undisguised breach of 
faith, as contracted between the North and South in the settlement of the 
Missouri question in 1820, by which the tranquillity of the two sections was 
restored; a compromise binding upon all honorable men. 

That it is also an open violation of the compromise of 1850, by which, 
for the sake of peace, and to calm the distempered pulse of certain enemies of 
the Union at the South, the North accepted and acquiesced in the odious 
"fugitive slave law" of that year. 

That it is also an undisguised and unmanly contempt of the pledge given 
to the country by the present dominant party at their national convention in 
1852, not to "agitate the subject of slavery in or out of Congress," being the 
same convention that nominated Franklin Pierce to the Presidency. 

That it is greatly injurious to the free States, and to the Territories them- 
selves, tending to retard the settlement and to prevent the improvement of 
the country by moans of free labor, and to discourage foreign immigrants 
resorting thither for their homes. 



lli^ ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 



That one of its priucl|Kil aims is to give to the slave States such a de- 
cided and practical preponderance in all the measures of government as sliall 
reduce the North, with all her industry, wealth and enterprise, to be the mere 
province of a few slave - holding oligarchs of tlie South — a condition too 
shameful to be contemplated. 

Because, as openly avowed by its Southern friends, it is intended as an 
entering wedge to the still further augmentation of the slave power by the 
acquisition of the other Territories, cursed with the same "leprosy." 

Resolved, That the obnoxious measure to which we have alluded ought to 
be repealed, and a provision substituted for it, prohibiting slavery in said Ter- 
ritories, and each of them. 

Resolved, That after this gross breach of faith and wanton affront to us 
as Northern men, we hold ourselves absolved from all "compromises'' (except 
those expressed in the constitution) for the protection of slavery and slave- 
owners ; that we now demand u.'^isures of protection and immunitj' for our- 
selves; and among them we demana :}<e repeal of the fugitive slave taw, and an 
act to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. 

R':solved, That we notice without dismay certain popular indications by 
slaveholders on the frontier of said Territories of a purpose on their part to 
prevent by violence the settlement of the country by non - slaveholding men. 
To the latter we say : Be of good clieer, persevere in the right, remember 
the Kepublican motto, "The North will defend you." 

R'-solved, That postponing and suspending all differences with regard to 
political economy or administrative policy, in view of the imminent danger 
that Kansas and Nebraska will be grasped by slaverj^ and a thousand miles 
of slave soil be thus interposed between the free States of the Atlantic and 
those of the Pacific, we will act cordially and faithfully in unison to avert 
and repeal this gigantic wrong and shame. 

Resolved, That in view of the necessity of battling for the first principles 
of republican government, and against the schemes of an aristocracy, the most 
revolting and oppressive with which the earth was ever cursed, or man de- 
based, we wull co-operate and be known as Republicans until the contest be 
terminated. 

Resolved, That we earnestly recommend the calling of a general conven- 
tion of the free States, and such of the slaveholding States, or portions 
thereof, as may desire to be there represented, with a view to the adoption of 
other more extended and effectual measures in resistance to the encroachments 
of slavery; and that a committee of five persons be appointed to correspond 
and co-operate with our friends in other States on the subjert. 

Resolved, That in relation to the domestic affairs of the State we urge a 
more economical administration of the government and a more rigid account- 
ability of the public officers; a speedy payment of the balance of the public 
debt, and the lessening of the amount of taxation ; a careful preservation of 
the primary school and university funds, and their diligent application to the 



"UNDER THE OAKS." 2j^3 

great objects for which they were created • nnH nie^ f ,u . . 

veat the unaecessar, or ^ru^l^^^t^ tl^^ '::S^;^^T:^ ^J- 

Resolved, That m our opinion the commercial wants of M chSn • 

he enactment of a general railroad law, which, while U s !n ^^"T 

investment and encourage the enterprise o stockhoWers shall 1 I '^' 

protect the rights of the public and of individuals ank tt .f ^""'"^ "^^ 

of such a measure requires the first talents of the SUte Preparation 

TJie resolutions were adopted almost unanimously, and there- 
upon Isaac P. Christians as chairman of the committee of 
ixteen appointed by the Kalamazoo convention, came forward 
and announced the absolute abandonment of the State ticket and 
oj^amzatton o the Free Democrac,-an act which was greeted 
with loud and prolonged applause. A committee of ninety 

aTinJr T '"" "^' '"^^^^^-^'^^ "^"^"^ '^^ State,' 
and ncludmg the names of Jacob M. Howard, Moses Wisner 
Charles M. Croswell, Fernando C. Beaman, and Chas. T Gor-' 
ham, was next appointed to nominate a State ticket, and the 
eonyentton adjourned until evening. At that session, which was 
held m one of the village halls, a State central committee was 
chosen, and the committee on nominations reported the following 
ticket which was unanimously endorsed by the convention, this 
closing Its formal proceedings : 

Governor-Kinsley S. Bingham, of Livingston. 

Lieutenant -Governor -George A. Coe, of Branch 

Secretary of State -John McKinney, of Van Buren. 

State Treasurer— Silas M. Holmes, of Wayne. 

Attorney -General -Jacob M. Howard, of Wayne. 

Auditor - General - Whitney Jones, of Ingham 

Commissioner of Land Office - Seymour B. Treadwell, of Jackson 

Supermtendent of Public Instruction - Ira Mayhew, of Monroe ' 

Member Board of Education - John R. Kellogg, of Allegan. 

(To fill vacancy) -Hiram L. Miller, of Saginaw. 

The response of the anti- slavery masses to the action of the 
convention was prompt and cordial. Some of the more earnest 
and enthusiastic Wliigs who had hoped that the Northern wing 



lltt ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

of their party could be transformed into an efficient champion 
of slavery restriction — Mr, Chandler had shared in this feeling 
— at first doubted the wisdom of what had been done. They 
found themselves called upon to make large sacriiices of cher- 
ished traditions and ties, and felt that their representation upon 
the fusion State ticket was not in due proportion to the number 
of votes they would be expected to contribute to its election. 
But this not unnatural feeling of early disappointment had but 
a brief existence among the Whigs of strong anti- slavery convic- 
tions. As the good faith of the movement, the spontaneous 
character of the pojDular uprising, and the possibility of accom- 
plishing anti -slavery union throughout the North became clear, 
they laid aside all hesitation and joined with sincere ardor in the 
work of Republican organization. Before the close of the sum- 
mer of 1854 the strong leaders and the intelligent rank and lile 
of the Michigan Whigs had accepted the new fellowship, and the 
action of the Jackson convention received their hearty acquies- 
cence and loyal support. Mr. Chandler rendered valuable service 
in the following campaign as an organizer of Repul)licanism 
throughout Michigan, and put into this work enough of his 
characteristic vigor to earn from the Democratic pajiers the title 
of the "traveling agent" of the "new Abolition party." 

There was still among the Whigs a small conservative minor- 
ity who, chiefly through the inspiration of pro -slavery sentiment 
and under the leadership of the Detroit Advet'tiser^ made a desper- 
ate effort to prevent the abandonment of their party organization. 
They procured the signing of a circular addressed to the Whig 
committee asking that a State convention should be held, and in 
compliance with this request a call was issued for a convention 
to meet at Marshall on October 4. When it assembled it was 
found that the great majority of its delegates favored union with 
the Republicans. They controlled its proceedings throughout, and 
put in the chair Rufus Hosmer who was then the head o*f the 



"UNDER THE OAKS" 115 

new Republican State central committee, elected a State central 
committee composed of ardent fusionists, defeated the schemes 
for the nomination of a ticket, and issued an address urging the 
Whigs of Michigan to unite in this campaign with all other 
opponents of the spread of slavery. This decisive action made 
the Michigan election of 185i a contest between Eepublicanism 
and the Democracy (which held its convention at Detroit on 
September 14, and placed John S. Barry at the head of its 
State ticket ). 

The local result of the Jackson convention was a permanent 
political revolution. In November the Eepublicans elected their 
entire State ticket (giving Mr. Bingham 43,652 votes to 38,675 
for Mr. Barry), three of the four Congressmen, and a Legisla- 
ture with an overwhelming majority in both branches against 
the Kansas -N'ebraska policy. The Eepublican ascendancy thus 
established in Michigan has never been impaired. That party 
has been victorious in eveiy State election since 1854; and of 
the Governors since chosen every one who was at that time a 
resident of the State (Henry H. Crapo did not settle in Michigan 
until 1856) was a member of the Jackson convention. Michi- 
gan has also since sent only Republicans to the Senate; every 
one of them except Thomas W Ferry (who had barely attained 
his majority in 1854) was a prominent actor in the scenes 
"under the oaks.^' It has sent seventy -six Republicans and only 
seven Democrats to the House of Representatives, and the 
Republicans have controlled both branches of every Legislature 
since 1854. Iowa is the only State which can point to a similar 
record of uninterrupted Republican victory. In Yermont the 
Democrats have been uniformly defeated, but the opposition 
ticket in 1854 was not called Republican. Of the States which 
have been admitted since 1854, three (Kansas, Nebraska and 
Minnesota) have been steadfastly Republican, but Michigan sur- 
passes them in the duration, while she equals tlienr in the 



116 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

(juality, of her iidelitj to the party of Freedom. Each of tlie 
other Northern States has at least once chosen an anti - Republi- 
can Governor, while Michigan (with Iowa) has been uniformly 
Republican. 

The claim that Michigan was the first State to organize and 
name the Rcjjublican party cannot be successfully disputed.* The 
convention "under the oaks" of Jackson ante -dates by a week 
or more all similar bodies. The first Republican convention in 
Wisconsin was held at Madison on July 13, 1854. Its call was 
issued (July 9) after a number of Anti - Nebraska meetings had 
been held in different parts of the State, and invited "all men 
" opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the 
" extension of the slave power " to take part. This convention 
adopted the following as one of its resolutions : 

Resolved, That we accept the issue forced upon us by the slave power, 
and in defense of Freedom will co-operate and be known as Republicans. 

The Anti - Nebraska men of Massachusetts met in convention 
on July 19 of the same year, and organized the Republican 
party in that State by adopting the following resolution : 

Resolved, That in co-operation with the friends of Freedom in sister States, 
we hereby form the Republican party of Massachusetts. 

But the Republicans did not carry Massachusetts that year, 
the Anti - Nebraska vote being cast almost solidly for the suc- 
cessful Know -Nothing ticket. In Vermont, on July 13, 1854, 

*The Senator from Virginia has stated that the Republican party originated In New- 
England, from Know Notliingism. It is not true, sir ; it had no such origin ; it originated 
in no such place and from no such source. The Republican party was born in Michi- 
gan, on the si.Kth day of July, 18r>4. It had no origin from Know Nothingism or any other 
thing, except the outrageous, the infamous repeal of the time -honored Missouri compro- 
mise by the Congress of that year. It was christened the Republican party at its birth. 
It is perfectly evident the Senator from Virginia knows nothing at all about the Republican 
party, its origin, its ends, or its aims. He does not know anything about its birth or its 
principles I merely wish to correct the misapprehension on his part that it was born in 
New England or anywhere else out of the State of Michigan. There is where it was bom, 
sir ; and we glory in the production of such a child. —Jkfr. Chandler in the Senate, Decem- 
ber lU, 1S59, in reply to Senator Mason, of Virginia. 



"UNDER THE OAKS." II7 

a mass convention was held of persons "in favor of resisting 
bj al constitutional means, the usurpations of the propagandists 
of slaverj.' Among the resolutions there adopted was one 
which closed with these words: "We propose and respectfully 
^^reconnnend to the friends of Freedom in other States to 
co-operate and be known as Eepublicans." A State ticket 
was nominated, but, the State committees of the various parties 
bemg empowered "to fiU vacancies," a fusion ticket was after- 
ward placed in the field, voted for and elected under the name 
of i^usion. On the same day a convention was held in Colum- 
bus, O, which organized a canvass which swept that State at 
the fall elections; during this campaign most of the Anti- 
Nebraska candidates called themselves Eepublicans, and the party 
formally adopted that name at the State convention in 1855 which 
nominated Salmon P. Chase for Governor. It will be seen that 
the Jackson convention preceded all these kindred gatherings 
io this statement may be profitably added the testimony of 
Henry Wilson, who, after thoroughly investigating the whole 
subject of the origin of Republicanism, wrote : * 

hayo^Tj^)T'" r^f "''''''" '"''''' "'"-^^ ^^"^'^ "^^^^' «^ ^^''^^tever action may 
have been taken e sewhere, to Michigan belongs the honor of being the firs^ 

b fore theT TT7 "" ""'^^"^""^^^ ^'^^^^^ ^^^"^ ^^^^ *^-^ -o^th 

adoptec a nZf t' " ^^^-^^^-ska bill the Free Soil convention had 
adopted a mixed ticket, made up of Frec-Soilers and Whigs, in order that 

nmedH^^o: tl ^^"^^'°^««^, ^' *^« ^^-^^--y elementVof the Stlt 
t^ -' ; V; TT "' '^' "^"'^^^'^^ ^"^- J^^^-^l'^ ^V--". editor „f 

'Fiel Son ° T' .'T^ ^'""^ ^" '■^"°^- «^ d-banding the Whig and 
Fiee Soil parties and of the organization of a new party composed of all 

Free SoT iotr^T. ^"-"'""^ ""P^''^^'^* °'j^^^ "^^ "- -'«-^---l «f the 

Lued sin? r"^ '''" '''''''''' '-^ ^^" ''' ^ --^^ convention was 

day of ulv H """'i "''" '''''' """^^- ^^" convention met on the 6th 
aay ot July, and was largely attended. 



* Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," volume 2 



118 ZACMAKIAII CHANDLER. 

A platform drawn by the Hou. Jacob M. Howard, afterward United 
States Senator from Michigan, was adopted, not only opposing the extension 
of slavery, but declaring in favor of its abolition in the District of Columbia. 
The report also proposed the name of "Republican" for the new party, which 
was adopted by the convention. Kinsley S. Bingham was nominated for Gov- 
ernor, and was triumphantly elected; and Michigan, thus early to enter the 
ranks of the Republican party, has remained steadfast to its then publicly- 
avowed principles and faith. 

It is true that the Michigan convention of July 6, 1854, was 
only one development of a vast national agitation. The forces 
that gave it being were at work tkrougliout tlie continent. Like 
movements were on foot in every Northern State. Kindred 
bodies met in the same month to take the same action. But to 
the men who gathered on that mid -summer day in the oak 
grove at Jackson belongs the honor of being the first to com- 
prehend a great opportunity; they were wise enough to improve 
all its possibilities, and there founded and named the party of 
the future. 




CHAPTEE VII. 

THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE. 

HE abrogation of the Missouri compromise was fol- 
lowed by the arbitrary enforcement of the Fugitive Slave 
act in important Northern cities, and by a determined 
struggle between freedom and slavery for the possession 
of the virgin soil of Kansas. These phases of "the irrepressible 
conflict" were attended by many exciting incidents which con- 
stantly strengthened the new anti - slavery party in the North 
and in the end made it the main competitor of the Democracy 
in the presidential election of 1856. The decisive character of 
its victory iii Michigan in 1854 made Republicanism especially 
strong in that State, and the events of each successive month of 
1855 and 1856 added to its power both in numbers and in sen- 
timent. Throughout this period Mr. Chandler labored, in public 
and in private, and with earnestness and effect, to inspire the 
new party with vigor of conviction and unflinching flrmness 
of purpose. No man did more than he to make it thoroughly 
"radical," and his former prominence as a Whig rendered his 
efforts especially fruitful. His earliest Republican speeches did 
not differ from his latest in courage of opinion, in plainness of 
expression, or in manifest sincerity of conviction. On September 
12, 1855, he addressed, with Henry Wilson, an immense mass- 
meeting at Kalamazoo, and denounced the border - ruffian crimes 
in Kansas in the strongest terms. On the 30th of May, 1856, 
he was one of the speakers at a large meeting held in the city 
of Detroit to consider the assault of Preston Brooks upon 
Charles Sumner. He there gave expression to Republican indig- 



120 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

nation in the plainest language. After fitly describing the era 
of pro-sla\'erj murder in Kansas, and the recent crime of 
'• a cowardly assassin on the very floor of the Senate of the 
United States," he offered two resolutions, one demanding tlie 
impeachment of Franklin Pierce for his action in relation to 
Kansas, and a second to expel Rust, of Arkansas, for his attack 
upon Horace Greeley, and Preston Brooks for his assault on Mr. 
Sumner. Then he said in substance : 

This is not a time for argument. It is a time for action, for .ipeaking 
boldly and fearlessly. . . . This assault is upon the entire North. So 
long have craven doughface representatives sat in her places in Congress that 
the South has come to doubt our manhood. . . . We should uphold the 
hands of our representatives, and tell them that an indignity offered to them 
is an indignity offered to us. [Applause.] . . . The resolution calling for 
the impeachment of the President is one proper to be offered, ne has con- 
nived at and aided all this Kansas treachery and wrong. He supports the 
bogus LegislatTire of Kansas and orders its odious laws enforced. If Thomas 
Jefferson was to read his preamble to the Declara'ion of Independence in 
Kansas, he could be condemned by those laws to imprisonment in the peni- 
tentiary for two years. . . . What the British did at Lexington, the 
United States troops, under the orders of President Pierce, did at Lawrence. 
Our fathers resisted by all meanw in their power. We should imitate their 
example. What should we do ? . . . We should send enough men there 
to put Kansas in a peaceable condition. 

Mr. Chandler also said : " Had I been on the floor of the 
"Senate when that assault occurred, so help me God, that 
"ruffian's blood would have flowed," and he closed by declaring 
that Detroit should send one hundred men to Kansas, and by 
pledging himself, if that w^as done, to devote his entire income 
while they were there to aiding in their maintenance. He also 
made a forcible speech at a Kansas relief meeting, held in 
Detroit, to greet Gov. Andrew H. Reeder, on June 2, 1856, and 
then headed a subscription paper for the aid of the struggling 
Free State men of that territory wath the sum of $10,000. 
Actions and utterances of this kind in the plastic days of Michi- 
gan Republicanism gave to it that resolute and robust character 
which has been the source of its power. 



FROM 1854 TO 1857. 121 

The first national convention of the Republican party was 
held at Pittsburg on the 22d of February, 1856, under a call 
issued by the chairmen of the Republican committees of Ohio, 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Michigan. 
It was attended by delegates representing twenty - seven States 
and territories, and provided for the national organization of the 
Republican party by creating a general executive committee and 
calling a convention, to meet at Philadelphia on June 17, to 
nominate a presidential ticket. Micliigan was represented at 
Pittsburg by a delegation of eighteen, headed by Zachariah 
Chandler, and including Kinsley S. Bingham, Jacob M. Howard, 
and Fernando C. Beaman. Mr. Chandler was also a member of 
the committee which reported the plan for the national organiza- 
tion of the Republican party, and he participated briefly in the 
debates of that important gathering. The Michigan convention 
to elect delegates to Philadelphia was held at Ann Arbor, on 
March 8, 1856, and was addressed by Mr. Chandler and other 
prominent Republicans. He was a member of the Philadelphia 
convention, acting as an alternate for Charles T. Gorham, and, 
after Fremont was nominated, formally promised that the elect- 
oral vote of Michigan should be given for the ticket. He was 
there made the member for his State of the first Republican 
ISTational Committee. The Michigan delegation at Philadelphia 
originally supported Mr. Seward for the presidency, but finally 
joined in the movement to nominate General Fremont on the 
first ballot. For the vice - presidency the majority of the dele- 
gation supported William L. Dayton, but Mr. Chandler, with 
four others, voted for Abraham Lincoln. 

Ill the following campaign Mr. Chandler was among the 
most active of the Republican leaders. He aided liberally in 
the work of organizing the party throughout the State, and 
spoke at Detroit several times, and at Kalamazoo, Lapeer, 
Port Huron, Adrian, Coldwater, and other of the important 



122 ZACIIAUIAII CHANDLER 

cities and towns of Miclii^an. lie also liekl one joint discussion 
with Alpheus Felcli, at Olivet, on October Iti. The tone of 
his public utterances in 185(5 will ap})ear from these extracts 
from his speech at Kalamazoo (on Au<i:ust 27) ])efore an 
innnense mass - meeting, which was also addressed 1)y Abraham 
Lincoln and Jacob M. Howard : 

The Republicans of Michigan stand by tlic constitution, and wlien their 
defaniers prochiim that they are a disunion i)arly, as they do so often, tliey 
pul)lisli what they know to be a falsehood. . . . We are determined to 
stand by the constitution in all its parts, and, more than that, to make our 
adversaries stand by it in all and every part. . . . Our opponents have 
ignored this constitution with but a single exception. And what is that 
exception ? It is the key to their character and their jirinciples. In this 
whole instrument they acknowledge but one clause, and that is the right to 
reclaim fugitive slaves from their hard-earned freedom I 

We intend to make our opponents stand by this clause: "The citizens 
of each State shall be entitled to the privileges of all the States." But how 
is this at present on the Missouri ? Tlie citizens of Massachusetts, of New 
Jersey, of Pennsylvania or of Michigan, if they but presume to enter Kansas, 
are sent back with a guard or murdered in cold blood, whiie the citizens of 
the South are aided on their way to plant in that beautiful territory the 
accursed blight of slavery. We will make them stand by the constitution in 
all its parts, or, by the Eternal, we will have a different state of things here. 
The oak shall bear other fruit than acorns if the constitution be not upheld. 

Here is another clause of that instrument : " Congress shall make no 
law abridging the freedom of speecli or the press." How is it in Kansas 
to-day regarding this? If any man shall dare to deny the right to hold 
slaves in that territory he is imprisoned for a term of five years. 

Our opponents must also stand by this clause of the constitution : "A 
"well-regulated militia being neces.sary of a free state, the right of the people 
"to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." That clause of the constitu- 
tion is trampled under foot, and the Democratic platform in sustaining Pierce's 
administration virtually sustains and endorses the disgraceful outrage. 

Here is another clause: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law." The whole history of the Kansas mat- 
ter shows how shamefully this clause has been rejected by those who uphold 
the administration. 

There are but two candidates for the Presidency and but two platforms. 
The issue — the only issue — is : Shall slavery be national '? Shall it be under 
our protection, or shall it be under the ])rotection of the slave States only ? 
The whole question of platforms is in that. It is the only question. . . 
The policy of this government for twenty -five years has been pro -slavery. 



FROM 1854 TO 1857. 123 

The first act toward breaking that policy was the election of Banks as 
Speaker last winter. It was the first of what I hope will be a series of 
victories. 

A few years ago there was great commotion in the land. We were told 
"the Union is in danger." "What shall be done?" That was the first ques- 
tion. What was the answer of the men in power? "Use the utmost power 
of the government ; the Union must be saved." Armed men went through 
the streets of Boston. Troops were ordered there in great numbers. Ships of 
war were sent to Massachusetts Bay. What was the terrible danger of the 
Union ? There was a Negro lost ! A slave had run away ! A poor African 
had escaped from his master and — lo, the Union was in danger! "Use all the 
power of the government ; the laws must be enforced." Other troops were 
ordered there. The militia were called out. They surrounded the jail. A 
sloop of war was sent. Burns was borne back to his master and the Union 
was saved ! 

There came a later cry, ' ' the Union is in danger. " This time it was 
heard from bleeding Kansas. Armed bands were committing daily depreda- 
tions. This appeal reached the government, and what answer is made by the 
party in power? "I see nothing to call for executive interference." "Noth- 
ing?" Yet an empire is being crushed. "Nothing?" Yet houses are being 
robbed and burned, and helpless women and children murdered! "No cause 
for interference ? " The reason is plain. There was no Negro lost. 

Michigan fulfilled the pledge made in her behalf at Phila- 
delphia by Mr. Chandler, and gave to the Fremont electors 
Tl,762 votes, while the Buchanan ticket received but 52,136 and 
the Fillmore strength was only 1,660. The Kepublicans thus 
more than trebled their majority of 1854, and in this year car- 
ried all of the four Congressional districts of the State. Their 
victory in the legislative districts was overwhelming, and they 
elected twenty - nine of the thirty - one Senators, and sixty- 
three of the eighty Representatives. The term of Lewis Cass 
as Senator of the United States expired on the 4th of the fol- 
lowing March, and his State had thus decided that he should 
give place to a representative of its earnest and aggressive 
Republican sentiment. Mr. Chandler was at once recognized as 
the leading candidate for the position by reason of his positive 
qualities, his personal strength with the business classes of the 
State and the masses of the people, and his prominence as a 



124 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

representative of tlie strong Whig element in the Republican 
ranks. The senatorial canvass was an earnest one, but it was 
from the outset clear that Mr. Chandler was the first choice of 
decidedly the largest number of legislators, and that no other 
man possessed his popular following. Some unavailing efforts 
were made to combine against him the friends of all other can- 
didates, but the fact that he was also " the second choice " 
of many members defeated this plan, and the Republican caucus 
met at Lansing on January 8, 1857, with his marked lead in 
the contest still unimpaired. Three ballots were taken at its first 
session, the third giving Mr. Chandler a clear majority of all 
the votes cast. The caucus then adjourned until the following 
day, when he received a still stronger support on the fourth 
ballot and was formally nominated on the fifth. The following 
is the record of the balloting : 

FIRST SESSION. SECOND SESSION. 

First Second Tliird Fourth First 

Informal Informal Infoi-mal Informal Formal 
Ballot. Ballot. Ballot. Ballot. Ballot. 

Zachariah Cliandler, 37 45 49 54 80 

Isaac P. Christiancy, 17 21 23 33 

Austin Blair, 18 7 6 

Moses Wisner, 12 9 10 

Jacob M. Howard, 6 6 3 

Kinsley S. Bingham 3 7 2 

George A. Coe 4 

James V. Campbell, 1 

Halmcr H Emmons .. .. .. 1 

Blank .. 1 

Scattermg ., .. .. .. 8 

Total, 92 95 96 91 88 

This result was received with the heartiest enthusiasm by 
the Republicans, and the caucus greeted its nominee, when he 
came before it to return his thanks, with prolonged cheering. 
The scene which followed has been thus described by an eye- 
witness : '"This was the only time in an acquaintance of nearly 



FROM 1854 TO 1857. 125 

" thirty years that I ever saw Mr. Chandler abashed. When 
" brought before the caucus he trembled with emotion, and it 
" was several minutes before he could compose himself to even 
" briefly return his thanks. He has often said that it was the 
" only time that his courage and nerve absolutely failed him 
" and that he completely broke down. The rejoicing was so 
" hearty and unselfish that it overcame him, and he trembled 
" like a child." On the 10th of January the two branches of 
the Legislature voted for Senator, the Democrats complimenting 
General Cass with their ineffectual votes. The record of the 
balloting was as follows : 

SENATE. HOUSE. TOTAL. 

Zachariah Chandler, 27 62 89 

Lewis Cass, 2 14 16 

Blank, 1 1 

In the following joint convention of the two Houses the 
resolution, reciting the action taken separately and finally record- 
ing Mr. Chandler's election, was adopted without any dissent. 
Among the members of the Legislature whose votes made him 
the first Kepublican Senator from Michigan were Thomas W. 
Ferry, in later years his colleague in the Senate, Omar D. Con- 
ger, who became afterward a Republican leader in the lower 
branch of Congress, and George Jerome, a most intimate political 
and personal friend throughout life. 

The Senate of the Thirty -fifth Congress met in special session 
at Washington, on March 4, 1857, Franklin Pierce having con- 
vened it at the request of his successor, who was inaugurated 
on that day. The names upon its rolls were these : 

Clement C. Clay, Jr., and Benj. Fitzpatrick, of Alabama; 

Robert W. Johnson and Wm. K. Sebastian, of Arkansas ; 

David C. Broderick and Wm. M. Gwin, of California ; 

J ames Dixon and Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut ; 

Martin W. Bates and James A. Bayard, of Delaware; 



120 ZACIIAHIAII CHANDLER 

Stephen R. Malloiy and David L. Yulee, of Florida; 

Alfred Iverson and Robert Toombs, of Georgia ; 

Stephen A. Douglas and Ljnian Trumbull, of Illinois; 
Jesse D. Bright and Graham N. Fitch, of Indiana; 

James Harlan and Geo. W. Jones, of Iowa; 

John J. Crittenden and John B. Thomijson, of Kentucky; 

Judah P. Benjauun and John Slidell, of Louisiana; 

W. P. Fessenden and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine ; 

Anthony Kennedy and James A. Pearce, of Maryland; 

Charles Sumner and Henry AVilson, of Massachusetts; 

Zachariah Chandler and Chas. E. Stuart, of Michigan; 

Albert G. Brown and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi ; 

James S. Green and Trusten Polk, of Missouri ; 

James Bell and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire; 

John R. Thomson and William Wright, of New Jersey ; 

Preston King and William H. Seward, of New York; 

Asa Biggs and David S. Reid, of North Carolina; 

Geo. E. Piigh and Benj. F. Wade, of Ohio; 

William Bigler and Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania ; 

Philip Allen and James F. Simmons, of Rhode Islaiul ; 

Josiali J. Evans and Andrew P. Butler, of South Carolina; 

John Bell and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee; 

Samuel Houston and Thos. J. Rusk, of Texas ; 

Jacob CoUamer and Solomon Foot, of Yermont; 

R. M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, of Yirginia ; 

James R. Doolittle and Charles Durkee, of Wisconsin. 

This Senate met in the old chamber now occnpied by the 
Supreme Court, but around which then clustered fresh memories 
of Clay, Webster, Calhoun and their cotemporaries. The Secre- 
tary, Asbury Dickins, called the body to order, and in the 
absence of John C. Breckenridge, Yice - President elect, James 
M. Mason of Yirginia was chosen to preside temporarily. After 
the roll was called of the members with unexpired terms, the 



Sife 




128 ZACHAIUAII CHANDLER 

list of newly - elected Senators was read. As they responded to 
their names they advanced to the front of the presiding officer's 
desk, in groups of four, to take the oath of office. The iirst 
group were Bates, Bayard, Bright and Broderick ; the second 
consisted of Simon Cameron, Zachariah Chandler, Jefferson Davis 
and James Dixon. This scene was the subject, twenty -two 
years later,* of the most effective speech ever delivered by Mr. 
Chandler ; probably no speech ever uttered in the Senate more 
thoroughly touched the popular heart or was more widely read. 
Of the men who were then United States Senators, parts and 
witnesses of this scene, Fitzpatrick, Sebastian, Broderick, Dixon, 
Bates, Mallory, Iverson, Douglas, Bright, Crittenden, Thompson, 
Slidell, Fessenden, Kennedy, Pearce, Sumner, Wilson, Green, 
Hale, Thomson, Wright, King, Seward, Pugh, Wade, Allen, 
Simmons, Evans, Butler, John Bell, Jas. Bell, Andrew Johnson, 
Houston, Rusk, Collamer, Foot, Mason and Durkee (perhaps 
others) preceded Mr. Chandler to the grave. Of this number, 
one (Broderick) was killed in a duel and two committed sui- 
cide (Eusk killed himself at Nacogdoches, Tex., on July 20, 
1857, and Preston King on August 15, 1865, and while collector 
of the port of New York, jumped heavily weighted into the 
Hudson river). 

Of the members of this Senate Hamlin, Wilson (his original 
name was Jeremiah Jones Colbath) and Johnson became Vice- 
Presidents, and Johnson, on the death of Abraham Lincoln, 
became President. Mr. Hamlin was the only one still in the 
Senate at the time of Mr. Chandler's death, and his service liad 
not been continuous but was broken by his Vice - Presidential 
term. Sons of Cameron and Bayard were in 1879 in the seats 
occupied by their fathers in 1857. Seward became Secretary of 
State, Cameron Secretary of War, Fessenden Secretary of the 
Treasury, and Harlan and Chandler Secretaries of the Interior. 

* "The Jeflf. Davis speech," March 3, 1879. 



FROM 1854 TO 1837. 129 

Durkee became Governor of Utali, Jones Minister to Colombia 
and Cameron Minister to Russia. Jones was, on his return from 
Colombia, arrested for treason and confined in Fort Warren. 
Bright was expelled for treasonable correspondence with the 
enemj ; Polk was expelled for treason, and Sebastian, who 
retired from the Senate when Arkansas seceded from the Union, 
was also expelled, but after the war, ample proof being furnished 
that he was and always remained true to the Union, the resolu- 
tion of expulsion was rescinded. Doolittle, Trumbull, Dixon and 
Foster, who were Republicans in 1857, afterward joined the 
Democracy, and Mr. Seward also ceased to be in sympathy with 
the party to which he was indebted for his greatest honors. 
Gwin identified himself with the Confederacy, then became 
aide to the unfortunate Maximilian, by whom he was created 
" Duke of Sonora," and is back again at Washington as a 
lobbyist. Douglas and John Bell were defeated candidates for 
the Presidency in 1860. Houston was Covernor of Texas when 
the ordinance of secession passed and was deposed from his 
office by the disunion convention. 

Jefferson Davis, who swore to support tlie constitution and 
the Union at the same instant with Mr. Chandler, within four 
years rebelled against the government and became President of 
the so-called "Southern Confederacy." Slidell, the most skilful 
of the disunion leaders, and Mason were appointed by the rebel 
government Commissioners to Great Britain, and while on their 
way across the ocean were seized bv Captain Wilkes, commanding 
the United States steamer San Jacinto, taken from the British 
vessel Trent, and carried to Boston harbor, where they were 
confined in Fort Warren on a charge' of treason. This seizure 
the Department of State declined to uphold, and on the demand 
of Great Britain the "embassadors" were released. Shdell died 
abroad in merited obscurity. Benjamin became Secretary of War 
of the Confederacy, and after its downfall emigrated to England, 



130 ZACIIAIUAII CHANDLER. 

became a British citizen, and is a prosperous lawyer in London, 
Toombs was Confederate Secretary of State, and is still living 
in G-eorgia, crying as he did in 1861 " death to the Union." 
Mallory was Confederate Secretary of the ^<'avy, and for a time 
after the war was inn)risoned in Fort Lafayette. Ilnntcr was 
also Secretary of State of the (\)nfederacy ; since the war he 
has been Treasurer of Yirginia, hut with the political revolution 
of 1870 retired to private life and poverty. Clay was a Confed- 
erate Senator and diplomatic agent; in 1865 he was imprisoned 
in Fortress Monroe. Fitzpatrick was the original nominee f<jr 
Yice - President on the Douglas ticket in isoo, l)iit dcclincMl ; he 
became a rebel l)ut without prominence. Robert "W. Johiisdu 
was a Confederate Senator and afterward practiced law in Wash- 
ington. Yulee (whose original name M'as David Levy) retired 
from the Senate to join the Confederacy, ceased to be conspicu- 
ous, and is now president of a railroad in Florida. Iverson was 
a Brigadier - General in the rebel army, as was also Tooni1)s. 
Brown was Captain in the Confederate army and a member 
of the Confederate Senate. Butler die-d durinqj the following 
recess of Congress, and Evans, his colleague, died before the 
war. All of these Southern Senators, who retired with their 
States in 1S(^)1 were afterward formally expelled from the Senate. 
When Mr. Cliiindler entered the Senate the House of Rep- 
resentatives was controlled by the Democrats, but out of 234 
members ninety -two were filled with the fresli blood of the 
Republican party. Some of these men were then distinguished, 
and others have become so since, but of the entire number of 
Representatives only twelve yet remain in either branch of 
Congress. Henry L. Dawes is a Senator from Massachusetts, 
Lafayette Grover from Oregon, Justin S. Morrill fiMiii A^ennont, 
Zobulon B. Vance from Xorth Carolina, George II. Pendleton 
from Ohio, and L. Q. C. Lamar from Mississipjii. Samuel S. 
Cox, a Representative fi-om r)lii() in 1857, is now a Representa- 



FROM 1854 TO 1357. 131 

tive from New York. Alex. II. Stephens of Georgia, Alfred 
M. Scales of Xortli Carolina, John II. Reagan of Texas, Otho 
K Singleton of Mississippi, and John D. G. Atkins of Tennes- 
see are again members of the House. Stephens was Yice- 
President of the Confederacy ; Scales was Captain, Colonel and 
Brigadier - General in the rebel army ; Singleton was Aid - de- 
camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee; and Atkins was Lieutenant - Colonel 
of the Fifth Confederate Tennessee regiment, and afterward a 
member of the Confederate Congress. 

Others who were members of the House in 1857 afterward 
added to the reputations they then enjoyed. Schuyler Colfax 
has been Yice - President. A. H. Cragin, R. E. Fenton, Thomas 
L. Clingman, Frank P. Blair, Jr., John W. Stevenson, Edwin D. 
Morgan, Joshua Hill, and George S. Houston have been United 
States Senators. Israel AYashlnirn has been Governor of Maine, 
John Letcher of Virginia, and C. C. Washburn of Wisconsin. 
ISr. P. Banks was a General in the Union army, and is United 
States Marshal of Massachusetts. Daniel E. Sickles was also a 
General in the Union army and afterward Minister to Spain. 
Francis E. Spinner was for many years Treasurer of the LTnited 
States. John Sherman has been a Senator, and is Secretary of 
the Treasury. Elihu B. Washburne was Minister to France. 
John A. Bingham is Minister to Japan, and Horace Maynard 
to Turkey. Anson Burlingame was IVIiidster to China, and after- 
ward the embassador of that empire to negotiate treaties with 
foreign powers. William A. Howard is Governor of Dakota, 
and John S. Phelps of Missouri. The roll of the dead of the 
Thirty -fifth House of Representatives far exceeds that of the 
living. 

Zachariah Chandler entered the Senate of the United States 
with an abiding faith in Northern civilization and its right to 
supremacy, with a wise distrust of Southern professions, with a 
just hatred of institutions poisoned by slavery, with a determina- 



132 zACiiARiAii ciiandlp:r. 

tion to attack treason wherever found, with an nnquestioniiif;: 
belief that his cause was riglit and its defeat impossihle, and with 
as resohitc a s])irit as ever crossed the threshold of the Senate 
chamber, llis nature was without an atom of compromise, and 
was strong in the rugged qualities of courage, honesty, sincerity. 
firmness, and moral intre2)idity. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONSPIRACY THE ELECTION 

OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

^-/If R. C! HANDLER became a Senator of the United States 




at the time when the Southern followers of John C. 
Calhoun had determined that the preservation of slavery 
was impossible without disunion, and had commenced 
preparations for that desperate measure of defense. The heavy 
vote given to Fremont in the ]^orth, the failure of the attempt 
to plant slavery in Kansas, the widening schism in the Democ- 
racy itself on the issue of slavery - extension, and the certainty 
that the census of 18150 would greatly increase the voting power 
in Congress of the North and ISTorthwest — all made it plain 
that the South could not re-inforce its waning strength with new 
slave Stal:es. Its leaders saw that the alternative before them 
was a systematic repression of slavery pointing toward its ulti- 
mate extinction, or the creation of a new government pretending 
to be a republic but "with its foundations laid, its corner-stone 
" resting upon, the great truth that the negro is not equal to 
" the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, 
" is his natural and normal condition." * Every civilized instinct 
urged them to assent to peaceful and gradual emancipation, but 
they chose the alternative of disunion from a belief that in no 
other way could the political ascendancy so long enjoyed by the 
ruling classes of the South be maintained. The administration 
of James Buchanan was their period of preparation. Whatever 
of needed assistance his sympathy failed to supply was furnished 

* Speech of Alexander H. Stei^hens at Savannah on March 21, 1861, after his election to 
the rebel Vice-Presidency. 



134 ZACIIARIAII (HANDLER. 

by liis imbecility of purpose. In his Cabinet and in federal 
offices throug-liout tlie South active disunionists plotted and 
labored to make all things ready for rebellion and unready for 
its suppression. Chronic compromisers, Northern believers in 
slavery, and State Rights theorists were their useful allies. In 
Congress they threatened and bullied, and month by month 
made the demands of slavery more arrogant and exacting, 
scheming to kindle the war spirit of the South and to widen 
the breach between the sections, until they could offer to the 
North the ultiuiatum of abject surrender to the slave power or 
disuuiou and civil strife. The representatives of the North at 
Washington met these early developments of treason in various 
moods; there was no lack among them of those who M'cre inclined 
to submit; there were many who disbelieved in the reality of 
the purpose underlying Southern raporiug and bluster, and this 
class included earnest and able Kepublicans ; but there were 
also some who did not doubt that the slave power w^ould try 
secession before accepting defeat, and wdio, yielding not one inch 
of the right to menace-^, proposed to treat disunion, Mdiether 
threatened or attempted as treason and to denounce and resist 
it as such. 

Early in his Senatorial career Mr. Chandler l)ecame convinced 
that tlie purpose of rebellion was a well-defined one at the 
South, that preparations to make it successful were in active 
progress, and that the longer the crisis was delayed the more 
difficult would be the task of its suppression. Between 1857 
and 1861 his comments to his intimate friends on the outlook 
were exceedingly gloomy, and he often declared that he saw no 
possible escape from war. If the government was to be main- 
tained on the basis on which it was founded and M-as not to be 
revolutionized in the interest of slavery, he believed that an 
armed conflict with the men who had determined to change its 
character was inevitable. He did not underestimate their am- 
bition, their desperateness of purpose, or their readiness for 



THE WAR CLOUD. 135 

violence. But neither in public nor in private did he quail 
before theni in any degree, and his only plan of action was the 
simple, straight - forward and characteristic one of meeting their 
threats with defiance and their treason with all the force required 
for its punishment. In a time of vacillation, feebleness and 
moral cowardice, and while he was still new in the Senate and 
hampered by his own inexperience and the usages of that body, 
what he did say and all his acts and influence were important 
contributions to that invigorating of l^orthern sentiment which 
the times so greatly demanded and which alone made possible 
the national uprising of 1861. 

As a matter of record, the first time Zachariah Chandler's 
voice was heard in the Senate chamber, he asked that ''Cornelius 
" OTlynn have leave to withdraw his memorial and papers from 
" the files of the Senate." The first caucus he attended was that 
in which the Republican minority decided to make a vigorous 
protest against the unfairness of its treatment in tlie appointment 
of the Senate committees of the Thirty - fifth Congress. In his 
first speech he added, on the floor of the Senate, to the protest 
of his party an equally vigorous remonstrance against the com- 
plete ignoring of the commercial importance of the Northwest in 
the selection of members of the Committee on Commerce. In 
his second speech (on the jDroposition to increase the army) he 
said in significant language : " If they w^ill show to me that they 
" require a force in Utah to put down rebellion I will vote for 
" it, I care not whether it be one regiment or one hundred 
" regiments." His first prepared address in the Senate was 
delivered on the 12th day of March, 1858, and had as its theme 
that most reckless of the slave power's efforts at self - extension, 
the attempt to force upon Kansas what was known as the 
Lecompton constitution. 

Tliis was a pro -slaver}' instrument, framed by a constitutional 
convention elected and controlled by Border - Ruffians, apparently 
ratified at an election whose manao;ers allowed no one to vote 



136 ZACIIARIAII ClIA^'DLKR. 

against it but only to vote for it with slavery or for it without 
slavery (even the "without" was fraudulent, because property in 
slaves already in Kansas was in any event guaranteed until 
1864), and overwhelmingly rejected at tlie only election which 
in any degree fairly represented the o])inions of the genuine 
settlers of the territory. Mr. Chandlers speech on this to])ic, 
the absorbing one of that day, was prej)ared with much care and 
delivered from manuscript. Portions of it were read to Senators 
Cameron, Wade and Hamlin before it was uttered. While it was 
spoken with the impulsive manner that generally characterized 
his speeches, it was the result of long deliberation and of sucli 
careful study of {)hraseol()gy as was necessary to make it e.\))licit 
and forcible. It was listened to by a large audience. ^Ir. 
Chandler had in private conversation s])oken with much vigor 
of tlie duty of the Tiepu])lican party in case the Lecomptdii 
constitution of Kansas was accepted and the new State admitted 
under tlitit instrument, and his remarks had been freely quo.ted. 
His reputation fo;- 'radicalism of opinion and ])lainness of speech 
had also reached Washington, and there was a general interest 
felt in his tirst ])re])ared address. He began speaking about 
fifteen minutes after the Semite was called to order ( iji the 
cham1)er now occupied by the Supreme Court) and lield the 
rioor for nearly three hours. The spectators included many 
members of the House, among them John Sherman, since Sen- 
ator and Secretary of the Tivasury, Alexander H. Stephens, 
afterward Vice -Pi'csident of the Confederacy, arid John A. 
Logan, now well-known as both soldier and Senator. The address 
was one of power and was attended by marked eifect.* It con- 



*0f this speech the New York Courier and Enquirer said: ''Tlio speecli of Mr. 
"Chandler on the li h places him among the first debaters of the couutiy. No more 
"unanswerable exposition of the usurpation in Kansas has been made." The Chienpro 
Tribune said: "Mr. Chandler made his first formal speech in the Senate to-day. That 
"body paid him tlie compliment of imwavering attention through the whole of his able 
'and effective speech. The passage in which he described the murder of Brown. Barbour 
"and G.iy . . . e.\-cited the sympathies and passions of his audience to a pitch rarely 
"observed in parliamentary debate." 



THE WAR CLOUD. I37 

tained this description of the fate of tliree Michigan emigrants 
to Kansas : 

Men have been huuted dowu by sheriffs and by pos.es from other States 
by border -rufhaas- everywhere under the color of law. Sir the State of 
Michigan has over a thousand of her people in Kansas to-day ' Three of her 
citizens, and many other good men, have been murdered in cold blood Two 
of them, Bai-bour and Brown, I know were as good men as can be found on 
he face of the earth. The othei- Gay - was Mr. Pierce's Land Agent for 
the tern oiy. He was a Nebraska pro - slavery Democrat. He was met one 
day, with his son, on the road, and asked whether he was for Free -State or 
pro -slavery He had become a little Free - Statish in his views, and not 
creaming danger he said: "I am a Free -State man," and he was shot 
down, and his son. in attempting to defend his father, received a bullet in 
his hip, and IS now a cripple in Michigan. I speak with some feelino- Mv 
own constituents, my own people, have been brutally murdered, and I should 
be recreant to my trust if I did not speak with feeling on this subject. I 
know the men from Michigan who are in Kansas to be as good men as can 
be found within these United States, and when any one says the emigrants 

cities I tell him he knows nothing about the subject and that it is not true 
They are as good men as the State of Michigan produces; they are honest 
and brave ; they know their rights and, knowing, dare defend them. 

But tliose i)arts of the speech wliich most thoroughly stirred 
his liearers and fell with unaccustomed force on ears which 
rarelj heard such defiant tones, were these: 

I cannot permit this bill to pass without protest. It was conceived and 
executed m fraud. ... It is one of the series of aggressions on the part 
ot the slave power which, if permitted to be consummated, must end in the 
subversion of the constitution and the Union. . . . It strikes a death - blow 
at State sovereignty and popular rights. . . . When Missouri applied for 
admission as a slave State . . . the North ol,jected. They declared it was 
agreed to that no more slave States should he admitted into the Union 
Agitation ran high. The South then as now threatened a dissolution of the 
L limn. The North then as now denied her power to dissolve it 
During this excitement the hearts of brave men quailed. . A new com' 

promise was made. ... As a part of this compromise slavery was forever 
prohibited north of 36= 30'. . . . The compromise w^as acquiesced in. 
Peace again reigned through the land, . . . and this peace continued until 
the discovery of the new doctrine of popular sovereignty This is 

oalled a new compromise. ... We are told we must accept it because 
tae Union is in danger. ... But that set of people who have been in 



138 ZACIIAHIAII CHANDLER. 



labor ami sulYoring and trial for so long a lime on account of the Union have 
passed off the stage. In their places are men who love this glorious Union 
and love it as it was made by the fathers; men who will not whine "danger 
to (he Union," but brave men wlio will tight for this Union to the death. 
. . . The old women of the North who have been in the habit of crying 
out "the Union is in danger" have passed off the stage. They are dead. 
Their places will never be supplied, but in their stead we have a race of men 
who are devoted to this Union and devoted to it as Jefferson and the fathers 
made it and be(iueathed it to us. 

Any aggression upon the constitution has been submitted to by the race 
who have gone off the stage. They were ready to comi)romi.se any principle, 
any thing. The men of the present day are a different race. They will 
compromise nothing ; they are Union - loving men ; they love all portions of 
the Union ; and they will sacritice anything but principle to save it. They 
will, however, make no sacrifice of principle. Never ! Never ! No more 
compromises will ever be submitted to to save the Union I If it is worth 
saving, it will be saved ; but if you sap and undermine its foundations it 
must topple. It will be the legitimate result of your own action. The only 
way that we ever shall save this Union and make it as permanent as the 
everlasting hills will be by restoring it to the original foundations upon which 
the fathers placed it. . . . 

The people of Kansas are almost unanimously opposed to this constitution ; 
yet you propose to force it upon them without their consent. It cannot be 
done. The government has not bayonets enough to force a constitution upon 
the necks of any unwilling people. . . . It is our purpose to avoid the 
shedding of blood upon the soil of the United States by civil war. "While I 
will not charge on the supporters of the Lecompton constitution the purpose, 
in civil war, of shedding blood upon the soil of the United States. I do charge 
that they, and they alone, will be responsible for every drop of blood that 
may be shed in consequence of the adoption of that constitution. I trust in 
God civil war will never come ; but if it should come, upon their heads, and 
theirs alone, will rest the responsibility of every drop that may flow. I trust in 
God that this ([uestiou will never be pushed to that extremity, for I would 
have less respect for the people of Kansas than I now have if I supposed 
they would tamely submit to have a constitution thrust down their throats 
without authority of law, and against law, without making resistance. I 
would disown them as the descendants of the men who fought our revolution- 
ary battles if I difl not think they would resist any illegal attempts to force 
a constitution upon them. 

A speeeli of siicli vi<;(»r of opinion was not witlioiit marked 
effect. There was a dis])o.sitioii among tlie less radical Keptildi- 
cans to rate it as iiiq^rndent, and there were some attemjits at 
rcl Hiking Mr. (.'handler for being so outspoken. lie received 



THE WAR CLOUD. 139 

these criticisms good - liumoredlj, but felt confident of his position 
and constantly defended it. The effect of his demonstration on 
the Democratic side was marked ; the new Senator from Michi- 
gan surprised his political opponents by the directness and force 
of his attack, but won from them the respect always accorded to 
boldness and candor. Mr. Chandler also showed spirit on little 
as well as great occasions. In the latter part of the following 
April, the Democrats attempted to coerce the Kepublicans into 
voting upon the same bill for the admission of Kansas. With- 
out any ill -temper, but with no lack of earnestness, Mr. Chandler 
arose, and said : " I understand gentlemen on the other side to 
"say that no adjournment shall take place until this question is 
" disposed of. If that is their determination I can assure them 
"that no adjournment will take place until the Tth of June. 
" When I say that no adjournment will take place until that 
"time, I mean what I say. I propose to take a recess until 9 
" o'clock, and I advise gentlemen to bid farewell to their families 
"for thirty days at least." 

In 1858 fuel was added to the anti - slavery flame by the 
Dred Scott decision, in which the majority of the Judges of the 
Supreme Court affirmed, that as a matter of history the negroes 
at the time of the formation of the constitution "had no 
rights which the white man was bound to respect," that as a 
principle of law neither emancipated slaves nor the emancipated 
descendants of slaves were entitled to claim the rights and 
privileges which the constitution provides for and secures to 
citizens of tlie United States, and that under a correct constitu- 
tional construction acts excluding slavery from the territories 
were without validity. This utterance was rendered especially 
obnoxiois by the fact that the coui't, while leaving Dred Scott 
in slavery on the ground that the United States tribunals had 
no jurisdiction in his case, practically asserted jurisdiction for the 
purpose of deciding (outside of the real issues of the trial as 



140 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

limited by its own tiiuliiig ) that Congress could not exclude 
slavery from the territories. In reference to this decision Mr. 
Chandler said in the Senate on the ITtli of Fel)ruarv, 1859: 

What did General Jackson do when the Supreme Court dechired the 
United States Banlv constitutional ? Did he bow in deference to the opinion 
of the court ? No, . . . he said he would construe the constitution for 
himself, that he was sworn to do it. I shall do the same thing. I have sworn 
to support the Constitution of the United States, and I have sworn to supi)ort 
it as the fatlicrs made it and not as the Supreme Court have altered it. And 
1 never will swear allegiance to (hat. 

In October, lS5i>, ''Old John Brown*' made his memorable 
attempt to liberate the enslaved negroes of the South by the 
descent upon Harper's Ferry. The rashness of his unaided 
attack on a giant wrong is protected from ridicule by a heroism 
worthy of Thermopylae and by a death which Sidney's last hours 
did not surpass in moral grandeur. Mr. (chandler, with deep 
respect for Brown's motives and the uni(pie simplicity of his 
character, was earnest in condemnation of his methods and of 
the utter foolhardiness of liis effort. Congress was not in session 
when Brown seized Harper's Ferry and convulsed Virginia with 
fright, and Mi-. Chandler was not in Washington. When Congress 
did meet in Decendjer, Brown had just been hanged, and the 
excitement was still feverish. A Senate committee, consisting of 
Mason of Virginia, Jefferson Davis, Fitch of Indiana, Democi'ats, 
and Collatner and Doolittle, Republicans, was at once appointed 
to investigate the raid, and while the resolution providing for it 
was under consideration Mr. Chandler made one of his telling 
speeches. In it he thus ridiculed "■ the reign of terror '' at the 
South : 

Senators ask us why vro have no svnipatliv with Virginia in this instance. 
Sir, we do not understand this case at all. What are the facts V Seventeen 
white men and five unwilling negroes siu-round and capture a town of 2,000 
people, with a United States armory, any quantity of arms and ammunition, 
and with 800 men employed in it — as I am informed, employed in it 
under a civil onicer — and hold it for two days. These T miderstand to be 



THE WAR CLOUD. 141 

the facts, and you ask, Why have we not sympathy ? We do not understand 
any such case as that. The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Brown) asks, What 
would we say if North Carolina and Virginia were to attack the armory at 
Springfield ? I do not know what is the population of Springfield, but I will 
guarantee if any seventeen or twenty - two of the Generals ... of the States 
of Virginia and North Carolina were to attack Springfield, if there was not a 
man within five miles of there, the women would bind them in thirty minutes 
and would not ask sympathy and the matter would not be deemed of sufficient 
importance to ask for a committee of investigation on the part of the corpora- 
tion. Why, sir. Governor Wise compared the people of Harper's Ferry to 
sheep, as the public press state. That is a libel on the sheep. For I never saw • 
a flock of fifty or a hundred sheep in my life that had not a belligerent ram 
among them. We do not understand any such panic as this. If seventeen or 
one hundred men were to attack a town of tlic size of Harper's Ferry any- 
where throughout the region with v/hich I am acquainted, (hey would simply 
be put in jail in thirty minutes, and then they would be tried for their crimes 
and they would be punished and there would be no row made about it. 

The pointed passage of the ppeech was the one in which he 
thanked a Southern Governor for demonstrating so conspicuously 
that treason was a crime punishable by death. He said . 

I am in favor of the resolution because the first execution for treason 
that has ever occurred in the United States has just taken place. John Brown 
has been executed as a traitor in the State of Virginia, and I want it to ??.■ 
upon the records of the Senate in the most solemn maimer to be l)eld up as 
a warning to traitors, come they from the North, South, East or West. Dare 
to raise j'our impious hands against this government, its constitution and its 
laws — and you hang ! . . . Threats have been made year after year for 
the last thirty years, that if certain events happen this Union will be dissolved. 
It is no small matter to dissolve this Union. It means a bloody revolution 
or it means a halter. It means the successful overturn of this government or 
it means the fate of John Brown, and I want that to go solemnly on the 
record of this Senate ! 

Tliese were the speeches of a man untried in public life and 
still in the early years of his first Congressional term. The 
Senate which he thus addressed listened also to Charles Sumner's 
magnificent philippics — blows "struck with the clul) of Hercules 
entwined with flowers," to the philosophic eloquence of Seward 
in his moral prime, to "Wade's sturdy fearlessness of speech, to 
the wit of Hale, and to the vigorous oratory of Fessenden. But 



1^2 /ACIIAinAir (HANDLER. 

no man nieasurcd more aceui-atel}' than Zachariali Chandler the 
political forces of that day, no man branded the hatching 
treason with his blunt precision and homely power, and no man 
asserted with more boldness the courage and the purpose of the 
North. In that liour resolute words were useful in themselves; 
but the lapse of twenty years has shown that Mr. Chandler was 
then as clear-sighted as he was mtrepid in spirit and plain in 
speech. 

This unsparing denunciation of treason to plotting traitors 
was not without personal peril. Mr. Chandler became a Senator 
at a time when the South had unleashed its brutality at Wash- 
ington and regarded resistance to its demands as justifying 
violence and insult. Horace Greeley, while visiting AVashing- 
ton, was assaulted and injured in the Capitol grounds by Rust 
of Arkansas, on account of some criticisms in the Tribune on 
Congressional action. Preston Brooks committed (on the 22d of 
May, 185()) his assault on C^harles Sumner in the Senate chamber, 
a crime which was publicly upheld by Toombs, Slidell, Davis 
and other Southern leaders, and which led South Carolina to 
unanimously re-elect the ruffian to the House when he resigned 
after the adoption of a.vofe of censure. Henry Wilson's denun- 
ciation of this attack upoti his colleague as " brutal, murderous, 
and cowardly" was followed by a challenge from Brooks, to 
M'hich he responded by arming himself and by a note declaring 
that while he repudiated the duelling code he " religiously 
believed in the right of self -defense in the broadest sense." 
John Woodruff, a Connecticut Representative, having stigmatized 
Brooks's act as a " mean achievement of cowardice," was tendered 
a duelling challenge which lie declined to receive. Anson Bur- 
lingame pursued another course. Of the assault on the Massa- 
chusetts Senator, he said : " I denounce it in the name of the 
"constitution it violates. I denounce it in tlu; luunc of the 
"sovereignty of Massachusetts, which was stricken down by the 



THE WAR CLOUD. 143 

"blow. I denounce it in the name of humanity. I denounce it 
"in the name of civilization, which it outraged. I denounce it 
" in the name of that fair play which bullies and prize - fighters 
"respect." To this the response was a challenge from Brooks, 
which Mr. Burlingame acce^jted, and, selecting Canada as the 
spot for the meeting, had the satisfaction of seeing the represent- 
ative of South Carolina chivalry refuse to abide by the code he 
had himself invoked. William McKee Dunn, of Indiana, was 
challenged by Rust, of Arkansas, for words spoken in the House, 
and, naming " rifles at sixty paces " as the weapons, learned that 
such was not the " satisfaction " desired by Southern '' gentlemen.'' 
Owen Lo\'ejoy denounced the crimes of slavery in front of the 
Speaker s desk in the House, with the fists of angry Southerners 
shaking in his face, and amid their yells and threats. Potter, of 
Wisconsin, cooled off the hot blood of Roger A. Pryor by 
accepting his duelling challenge and selecting bowie-knives as 
the weapons. Amid all this there was much chronic servility 
among jS^orthern members to Southern insolence, which gave 
pungent force to Thaddeus Stevens's sarcasm (uttered during the 
prolonged contest over the Speakership of the Thirty -sixth 
Congress) that he could not blame the South for trying intimi- 
dation, for they had " tried it fifty times and fifty times, and 
had always found weak and recreant tremblers in the l^orth." 
Mr. Chandler entered the Senate with the firm resolution that 
he would not be bullied, that he would not submit to bluster, 
and that if occasion came he would fight without hesitation. His 
decision did not spring from love of quarrel or mere passion, but 
was the fruit of mature reflection and was based upon a clear 
purpose. He saw that the Southerners in Congress vapored and 
threatened for effect; that they believed that Northern men 
would not fight, and that they would be permitted to offer 
unlimited insults without arousing resentment. The public senti- 
ment of the l^Torth was against duelling or fisticuffs, and the 



14i ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER 

Southeniers sn])])Osed — and sincerely — that this was the result 
of cowardice and not of conscience. This condition of opinion 
was of decided assistance to the conspirators who were ])lottin^ 
disunion at the South, and the stigma of j)usillauiniity was the 
source of no little practical weakness with the iSorth. Under these 
circumstances Mr. Chandler fully determined — as did Mr. AVade, 
Mr. Hamlin, AFr. Cameron, and one or two other Senatoi-s — 
that if occasion offered, so that justice should be clearly ii])on 
his side, he would fight. This was a deliherate pnr])ose, not 
reached through any admiration for fighting men, noi- thi-ough 
belief in force as a method of argument, but from a convic- 
tion tliat the moral effect of such a demonstration of the personal 
courage of Northern re{)resentatives would be of service to the 
nation. Mr. Chandler knew himself to be physically cajjable of 
meeting almost any assailant ; he prepared himself for a collision 
by muscular exercise and the practice of marksmanship, and, 
while he did not seek, he made no efiEort to avoid, an encounter. 
On February 5, 1858, there was a personal altercation in the 
House of Representatives between (xalusha A. Grow, of Penn- 
sylvania, afterward Speaker, and Lawrence M. Keitt, of South 
Carolina, who was killed in battle, during the rebellion, at the 
head of a Confederate brigade. Mr. Harris of Illinois, an Anti- 
Xebraska Democrat, had offered a resolution for the a]ipointment 
of a committee to ascertain by an investigation whether the 
Lecompton constitution was the work in any just sense of the 
people of Kansas. Coming from such a source, the resolution 
would have received a majority of votes in the House, but its 
opponents resorted to parliamentary stratagem to prevent its 
passage, "filibustering" for several hours. Amid the attending 
e.xcitement there was a very heated colloquy between (ti-ow and 
Keitt, which ended in blows on both sides, Keitt being the first 
to strike. Grow resisted, and a general melee followed which 
was participated in by many members. The affair was afterward 



THE WAK CLOUD. 145 

adjusted, and both apologized to the Ronse but without ajDolo- 
gizmg to each otlier. This occurrence impressed Mr. Chandler 
deeply, and, as soon as he heard of it, he went to the Hall of 
Representati^res, and assured Mr. Grow of his approval and his 
readiness to render anj desired aid. It was the first outbreak of 
the kind which cauie within his personal observation, and con- 
firmed him in his belief that it was the duty of the Korthern 
minority to resist all encroachments upon their personal nnd 
official riglits. ]N\,t long afterward a colloquy occurred in the 
Seiiate between Simon Cameron and Senator Green of Missouri, 
ni which the lie was given, and only the prompt interference 
of Vice-President Breckenridge, who was in the chair, prevented 
a personal altercation. The Democrats were insisting upon a 
vote upon the bill to admit Kansas under the Lecompron consti- 
tution, while the Eepublicans were endeavoring to secure longer 
time for debate. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning when 
the offensive words were exchanged. Yice- President Brecken- 
ridge at once rapped with his gavel, and commanded both Green 
and Cameron to take their seats. After order had been restored, 
Senator Green continued his remarks, and, referring to Cameron, 
said : '^ I ^vill not use a harsh word now ; it will be out of 
"order. But if I get out of this Senate chamber I shall use a 
"harsh word in his ( Cameron's ) teetli, for tliere no rule of order 
^'^'will correct me. . . . As to any question of veracity 
"between that Senator and myself, in five minutes after the 
1^ Senate adjourns we can settle it." Mr. Cameron's reply was: 
"I desn-e to say, if these remarks are intended as a threat, they 
have no effect upon me." The debate was continued at length, 
but a small group of Senators was soon after seen in earnest 
conference in a cloak-room. It was composed of Senators 
Chandler, Cameron, Wade and Broderick, and the result of the 
consultation was that by the advice of his friends Mr. Cameron 
armed himself, and prepared for self-defense in case he was 



10 



140 ZACHARIAII CHANDLEll. 

attacked by Green. The Senate remained in conrinnous session 
for over eighteen hours, and for some time after the q.iarreh 
Meanwliile Mr. Green's passion cooled, and the expected collision 
did not take place ( explanations were ultitnately made by both 
in the Senate cluunber ). liut when the Senate adjonrned, .Mr. 
Chandler accompanied Mr. Cameron to his lodgings, as a nieasnre 
of precaution. Out of this affair grew a formal agreement 
between Mr. Chandler, Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wade, which was 
reduced to writing, and sealed with the understanding that its 
contents should not be nuide public until after the death of all 
the signers. His copy of this historic document is still among 
Mr. Chandler's papers, but it will not be made public while 
Mr. Cameron lives. Of its purport one,* who knew intimately 
the men and the circumstances and motives of this act, has 
written : 

The assaults of the violent Southern leaders upon some of the ablest and 
purest Repul)lieans in the Senate, known to be non - combatants, finally became 
unbearable to some of the less scrupulous Republicans, until, in the midst of 
one of the most denunciatory tirades of one of the fire-eaters, there was 
noticed a little group of the lately - admitted Republicans in a side consultation 
on the floor of the Senate Precisely what was said in consultation is not 
known to the writer, nor is it likely that it will transpire during the ifetime 
of either of the three gentlemen engaged. It is, however, known that the 
group was composed of Senators Wade, Cameron, and Chandler ; that it was 
a-reed between them substantially that the business of insulting. Rei^ubhcan 
Senators on the floor of the Senate had gone far enough, and that it must 
cease ; and further, that, in case of any renewed insolence to any other 
Republican Senator of the charac^ter wliich had been practiced, it should be 
the duty of one of the three to take up the -luarrel and make it his own to 
the full extent of the code -to the death if it need be. The compact ^^.^s 
not only ma.le, but signed and sealed, and remains sealed to this day. Its 
import, however, became known, and tl... den.eanor of the Southern fire-eaters, 
though still violent and di.sloyal, s<.nn att.r bcc.vme courteous personally 
toward Reiiublican Senators. _ , , ., , • 

They did however, feel around a little to ascertain whether the whispei- 
ia<rs as to the fighting Senators could be relied on. They had a scheme to 
assault Senator Chandler in the street, but a little inquiry as to his strength 

*The Hon James M. Edmunds, for many years Commissioner of the Land Office, and 
aftenvard postmaster of the Senate and of WashinRton City. 



THE WAR CLOUD. 147 

and skill led to its sudden abandonment. A blustering Southerner took offense 
at the remarks of Senator Wade, who had said in relation to an assertion 
made by him, that such a statement would only come from a liar or a coward 
Of course this could not be borne by the high-toned cavalier, and his friend 
or agent, or servitor called on Senator Wade, not with a formal challeno-e but 
to ascertain how Wade would probably act in the event of a clialleno-e ' Is 
soon as Wade pierced the diplomacy of the agent so far as to become aware 
of his purpose, he told him to tell the old coward that he dare not fio-ht 
This was not quite satisfactory. The agent or spy seemed anxious to know 
what kind of weapons Wade would choose in case of a contest. On learn in - 
this, Wade said, "rifles at twenty paces, with a white paper the size of a 
"dollar pinned over the heart of each combatant; and tell him, if I do not 
"hit the one on his breast at the first shot, he may fire at me all day " 

These inquiries seemed to cure all further desire on the part of the 
chivalry for personal combats. Threats, however, continued to be made of 
street assaults and caning, generally pointing to the more prominent of the 
non-combatants in the Republican ranks. 

Certain of the Republicans went Ihoroughly armed all the time and 
these, for weeks together, took turns in walking with their non-belligerent 
colleagues to and from the Capitol, to -protect them from personal assault. 

The decided practical value of Mr. Chandler's bearing at that 
time and of his known determination to maintain his official 
and personal rights at all physical hazards cannot be doubted. 
It made itself felt among his associates on both sides of the 
Senate chamber, and earned for him early recognition at 
Washington as a bold and staunch leader of his party. Personal 
influence was the natural outgrowth of positive qualities so fear- 
lessly displayed, and he became a man whose opinions were 
sought and whose energy in execution was prized by his fellow- 
Senators. A close personal intimacy with Mr. Wade, Mr. Hamlin 
and Mr. Cameron sprang np at this time, and general agreement 
of opinion on public questions led them into concerted action as 
representatives of the more "radical" element. Much of their 
work was beneath the surface and is not a matter of record, but 
the results of their efforts at that crisis to infuse vigor by all 
possible means into the lifeless national sentiment of the North 
and to prepare the people for the coming struggle were important 
and durable. 



148 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

Mr. Chandler was hoard with interest during the sessions of 
1858-59-60 on other (juestions than those connected witli tlie 
conflict over slavery. Ilis si3eech (on Feb. IT, 1859) in opj)osition 
to the bill appropriating $30,U()(»,00() to "facilitate the accpiisition 
of Cuba by negotiation" attracted some attention. Its scoi3e and 
tenor will appear from this extract : 

This is ;i most extraordinaiy proposition to be presented to the Congress 
of the United States at this time. With a Treasury' bankrupt, and tlie govern- 
ment borrowing money to pay its expenses, and no efficient remedy proposed 
for that state of things ; witli your great national works in the Northwest 
going to decay, and no monc}' to repair tliem ; witliout liarbors of refuge for 
your commerce, and no money to construct tliem ; willi a national debt of 
$70,000,000, which is increasing, in a time of profound peace, at the rate of 
$30,000,000 per annum — the Senate of the United States is startled by a 
proposition to borrow $30, 000, 000. And for what, sir V To jmy just claims 
against the government, which have been long deferred V No, sir ; you have 
no money for any such purpose as that. Is it to repair your national works 
on the Northwestern lakes, to repair your harbors, to lebuild your lighthouses ? 
No, sir ; you have no money for that. Is it to build a railroad to the Pacific, 
connecting the Eastern and Western slopes of this Continent by bands of iron, 
and open up the vast interior of the Continent to settlement ? No, sir ; you 
say that is unconstitutional. What, then, do j'ou propose to do with this 
$;30,000,000 ? Is it to purchase the island of Cuba ? No, sir ; for you are 
already advised in advance that Spain will not sell the island ; more, sir, you 
arc advised in advance that she will take a jiroposition for its purchase as a 
national insult, to be rejected with scorn and contempt. The action of her 
Cortes and of her government, on the reception of the President's message, 
proves this beyond all controversy ? What, then, do you propose to do with 
this $30,000,000? ... It is a great corruption fund for bribery and for 
bribery onlv. . . . But let us admit for the sake of argument that this 
proposition is brought forward in good faith and will be successfully terminated. 
What do any of the Northwestern States gain by the purchase of this island 
of Cuba ? I know something of Cuba, something of its soil, something of 
till' climate, something of its people, their manners and customs, something 
of their religion and something of their crimes. I spent a winter in the 
interior of the island of Cuba a few years since and can, therefore, speak 
from personal knowledge. . . . ]\Iuch of the soil of the island is rich and 
exceedingly productive, but it is in no way comparable to the prairies and 
bottom lands of the great West. You can go into almost any of your terri- 
tories and select an equal number of acres and you will have a more valuable 
State than j^ou can possibly make out of Cuba. . You propose to 

pay $200,000,000 for tlie island, $10 an acre for eveiy acre of land on 



THE WAR CLOUD. 149 

it . . . You are selling infinitely better lands, and have millions upon mil- 
lions of acres of them, at $1.25 per acre. You propose to pay $200,000,000 — 
nearly $200 a head for every man, woman and child, including negroes, on 
the island. And for what ? For the right to govern one million of the refuse 
of the earth. 

Daring tliis same period Mr. Chandler was very active in 
helping on the work of Republican organization throughout the 
country. In the campaign of 1858 in Michigan, he spoke 
repeatedly in the larger towns of that State, great audiences 
gathering to hear him, and answering with growing enthusiasm 
his vigorous attacks on the administration and its master, the 
slave power. The result was that Moses Wisner, Republican, 
was elected Governor by a vote of 65,202 to 56,067 for Charles 
E. Stuart, Democrat. The Republicans also carried every Con- 
gressional district (William A. Howard obtained his seat after a 
contest with George B. Cooper) and had a large majority in both 
branches of the Legislature. That body, on meeting in January, 
1859, elected Kinsley S. Bingham to the Senate, and Michigan 
has always since that year been represented in the upper branch 
of Congress by two Republicans. Charles E. Stuart, whom Mr. 
Bingliam succeeded, was a man of ability who had manfully 
refused to support the Lecompton outrage, and with Stephen A. 
Douglas and David C. Broderick had been classed as an Anti- 
Nebraska Democrat. Mr. Bingham was a tliorough Republican, 
and during his brief Senatorial term (he died in October, ISGl,) 
stood side by side with his colleague on all political questions. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1860 Mr. Chandler labored 
with untiring zeal to secure Mr. Lincoln's election. Early in 
the fall he spoke with marked effect in the State of uSTew 
York. Throughout August, September, and October he addressed 
a series of great mass - meetings at different points in Micliigan 
(at Hillsdale 8,000 people gathered to hear him, at Cassopolis 
10,000, at Paw Paw 5,000, and at Kalamazoo 20,000). In 
October he visited Illinois, speaking at Mr. Lincoln's home 



150 



ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 



( Springlield ) on the ITtli of tliat iiiontli." His last speech in 
that campaign waa made in the Republican wigwam at Detroit 
on November 1, and was alive with the spirit of victory and 
the firm purpose to secure its rewards. On the day of election 
his State answered his appeals with an increased Eepublican 
majority, giving Lincoln 88,480 votes to 65,057 for Douglas, 805 
for Breckenridge, and 405 for Bell. 



*The Springfield Journal of October 18 said : "Senator Chandler, of Michigan, made 
"yesterday one of the best speeches to which our citizens have had the pleasure of 
" listening during the campaign. . . . The lueetiug was a magnificent one and the 
"greatest enthusiasm prevailed." 



CHAPTER IX. 

SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PKOTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY. 

J[f^pACHARIAH CHANDLER as a Republican Senator 
%l^~M was a thorongh Whig in both his advocacy of an 
■l^'^ enlightened national system of Internal Improvements 
■^^ and his constant and efficient championship of the canse 
of the Protection of American Industries. It has been justly 
said that " the Great West of to - day owes its unequaled growth 
"and progress, its population, productiveness and wealth, pri- 
"marily, to the framers of the federal constitution, by which its 
" development was rendered possible, but ' more immediately and 
" palpably to the sagacity and statesmanship of Jefferson, the 
" purchaser of Louisiana ; to the genius of Fitch and Fulton, 
"the projector and achiever, respectively, of steam navigation ; 
"to De Witt Clinton, the early, unswerving and successful 
" champion of artificial inland navigation ; and to Henry Clay, 
"the eminent, eloquent, and effective champion of the diversi- 
"fication of our national industry through the Protection of 
" Home Manufactures." No man knew better or acknowledged 
more fully the truth of this analysis than Mr. Chandler. His 
own State abounded with evidences of its justice, and his firm 
faith in the protective principle was also strengthened by the 
teachings of his practical mercantile experience and by his 
general commercial sagacity. No State presents to-day more 
abundant proofs of the beneficence of "the American system" 
than Michigan, and no personal contributions to the protection 
of its interests and the diversification of its industries equaled 
those given on every possible occasion by Mr. Chandler through- 
out his prolonged Senatorial service. 



152 ZACIIARIAH CHAiN^DLER. 

Political economy has been well defined as "' tlie science of 
"labor-saving applied to the action of comnnmities, its aim 
" being to save labor from waste, from misapplication, and from 
" loss throngh constrained idleness." The objects of Protection are 
the ennobling of labor and the enhancing of its productiveness, 
and its method is interdicting an unwholesome competition which 
looks no farther than securing mere cheapness of production at 
whatever cost of human energy, comfort and enlightenment. 
There has never been an intelligent and sincere protectionist 
without a thorough faith in the vast importance and inherent 
nobility of Labor. On this as on all great questions Mr. Chand- 
ler's convictions were radical, and he was right fundamentally. 
He had been himself a laborer. The store, the farm, the factory, 
the work -shop, are all one in this — their duties are labor. Mr. 
Chandler knew the worth of free labor. He had witnessed its 
seed - planting and wonderful fruitage of development in Michi- 
gan, and he honored the strong, hardy, intelligent and self-reliant 
race who were the laborers there, and of whom he was one. He 
had early opportunity to make this plain in the Senate. Ham- 
mond of South Carolina, a true representati v^e of that turbulent, 
rebellious State and of the embodied insolence of its master class 
and of the man -owners contempt for free labor, made at this 
time his notorious "mud -sill" speech. "There must be laborers 
" in every community, a low, degenerate class, who hew the 
" wood and draw the water, . . . the mud - sills of society, in 
"effect they are slaves;" this was its idea. It was a frank 
avowal of the estimate put by the slave - holding oligarchy upon 
the Northern laborers, upon the men who have nuide this 
country what it is. Mr. Chandler was then young in the Senate, 
and had spoken l)ut rarely, but to this insult to his constituency 
he was quick to reply. Tu his speech of March 12, 1858, the 
first in which he addressed the Senate at any length, he said : 

It IS an attack upon my constituents. Under the Senator's version, under 
his exposition of slavery, ninctentlis of llie people of the North are or have 



THE TARIFF. 153 

been at some time slaves ; for nine - tenths of tlie people of the North have 
at some time been hirelings and laborers. We do not feel degraded by being 
laborers. We believe it to be respectable. . . . Travel on any road in the 
State of Michigan, and you vsrill find flourishing farms on almost every 160 
acres, with comfortable dwellings, and a high state of improvement and culti- 
vation. . . . You will find the owners of these farms with four or five 
sons of their neighboring farmers hired out by the day or the month or the 
year. . . . These young men go to service or labor until they get money 
enough to buy a farm ; then they, too, become the employers of labor. 
These men are never degraded by labor. . . . They are the 
foundations of society there. Some of these men who are at work by the 
month during the summer on farms are in the Legislature making laws for 
us in the winter 

There was more of it to the same effect — honest, indignant 
words in defense of free N^orthern labor, and in enlogy of tlie 
men who toiled. And the tone of these portions of the speech 
was wholesomely defiant, without a shade of truckling to 
Southern insolence. Nine years later, in discussing proposed 
tariff amendments in 1867, Mr. Chandler said in the Senate, 
'' I thank God we are able to pay good prices to our laborers." 
These utterances indicate the vein in which he always made his 
voice heard and influence felt whenever the interests and rights 
of labor were challenged either by speech or attempted legislation. 

The tariff controversy in the United States dates back lialf a 
century. This repaljlic in its colonial days was agricultural. 
There were no mines nor manufactures. Each house did its own 
spinning and weaving. There were small shops for the making 
and repairing of a few articles, and luxuries and fine goods for 
the rich were imported from the factories of Europe. The great 
labor-saving appliances of the nineteenth century did not exist 
even in imagination. The water power of the country was 
unused and its boundless wealth of minerals unknown. The 
people were farmers or traders. For them the government was 
founded, and apparently there M^as no contemplation of anytliing 
beyond. It was years before a change came, but, once begim, it 
hurried with rapid stride, until to-day more than one - twentieth 



154 ZACIIAKIAII (HANDLER. 

of the entire population of tlie United St.ites are engaged in 
iuanufacturing, as many more are employed in occupations cotv 
nected with and dependent upon such enterprises, and the capital 
invested in productive industries exceeds by millions of dollars 
the entire national debt. 

These changes as they progressed made new demands u]iun 
the government. After the development of the steam engine, 
and after later inventions and contrivances had cheapened the 
pi-oduction of cotton, woolen and other goods, household spin- 
ning- wheels and looms were silent, and the United States 
imported nearly every manufactured article needed by its people, 
sending out in return the products of its farms and plantations, 
its tobacco, cotton and grain. Year after year this draining pro- 
cess went on, the manufactnring towns of Europe growing great 
and prosperous, the United States widening and increasing in 
population, but adding little to its wealth. The mill -owners of 
Europe bought their cotton in South Carolina or Georgia, trans- 
ported it across tlie Atlantic, made it into cloths, and retiirned 
tliL'in to IS'ew York or Charleston. The American purchaser 
paid the cost of l)oth transportations, the cost and ])rofit of 
manufacture abroad, all the profits of middle -men wlio liandled 
the goods, and all the cost of exchanges. By this process 
America toiled, while England and the other numufacturing 
States of Europe reaped the harvest. Thoughtful people, know- 
ing that capital employed in production feeds, clothes and lodges 
the industrious workman, adds to the wealth of the nation, adds 
to its strength, adds to its jjower of resistance, and lessens the 
individual burden of taxation, and comprehending the inevitable 
re^uh of tlie drain in pnjgress, asked. Is there no way of pre- 
venting this ^ They saw tlie raw material produced in bountifnl 
profnsion, saw the water ])ower of tlie country running ;i\\;iy 
to the sea unvexed by use, and naturally asked, Is it not pos- 
sible to bring the miners and smeltei's, the founders, machinists 



THE TARIFF. _ 155 

and laborers, the meclianic and manufacturer of every description, 
here, to place them beside the raw material, to utilize this 
wasted power, and to save the losses and attrition that are 
impoverishing the country ? When these thoughts took shape in 
the active brains of Americans, tlie change began. Mills and 
factories sprang up by the water - courses. Tall chinmeys, clouds 
of smoke and glowing furnaces came after. Thus American 
manufacturing was born. 

But as the first mills and factories were established, these 
discoveries were made : In building a mill in England the 
laborers and mechanics could be hired at wages from twenty to 
forty per cent, lower than prevailed on this continent. The cost 
of machinery, most of it being brought from Europe, was also 
greater. Foreign manufacturers could hire their capital from the 
immense reservoir of Europe, where it had been accumulating 
for centuries, at from four to six per cent, interest. Here the 
borrower must pay eight or ten per cent, or even higher. There 
was another and even graver matter presented to the considera- 
tion of the pioneer manufacturer. Labor in Europe was cheap 
— so cheap that, combined with abundant capital and low 
interest, it enabled the foreign manufacturer to pay two ocean 
transportations and yet undersell an American competitor at the 
very door of his own mill. Should the American mechanic 
be asked to toil for the pauper wages of Europe? Should it be 
the policy of this government to gather about its factories the 
hungry- eyed, ill -clad, impoverished, ignorant and hopeless crowds 
which ai-e found in the manufacturing towns of the old world ? 
Could American institutions endure this i Where the people are 
all agriculturists, except under very extraordinary circumstances 
they need never want for food, and such circumstances are rarely 
chargeable to misgovernment or to bad laws. The farming 
classes are widely scattered; they are conservative and self- 
reliant, not o-iven to mobs and outbreaks, nor to obevino- the 



l'''' ZACIIARIAII CIIANDLKH. 

Avill of self-cuustituted leaders as do men gathered in great 
masses. But the men of mills and sh()})s and factoi-ies, unless 
they are well paid, must suffer ; and when they suffer their 
discontent threatens society itself. Despotic governments may 
apply the gag of a bayonet or the silence of a musket ball, but 
this is not possible in a republic resting upon the uncompelled 
support of all the people. Plainly, if a government, constituted 
as is this, is to be preserved, the mechanics, the laborers in mills 
and mines, in shops and factories, must be paid enough to 
support themselves and their families in comfort, to educate their 
children and to permit the thrifty to make savings. If the time 
ever comes when the millions of American workers upon whose 
assent this government exists are reduced to the condition of the 
pauper labor of Europe, this republic and its golden pi-omises of 
freedom will most certainly ignobly perish from the face of 
the earth. From such circumstances and ideas as these sprang 
the doctrine, accepted by almost all of the earlier statesmen of 
the republic, that the revenue system of the United States must 
be so modeled as to stimulate domestic manufactures, protect 
them from ruinous foreign competition, and promote that diversi- 
fication of industry which is so essential to the prosperity and 
independence of free labor. 

The first tariff measure ( passed by the First Congress and 
approved by George Washington ) imposed but low duties, but 
in some of its details practically recognized the protective prin- 
ciple, and in its preamble declared one of its purposes to be 
"the protection and encouragement of Domestic Manufacture." 
From 1807 to 1815 the United States was in a great degree 
driven from the ocean. A part of that time it was involved in 
a war with Great Britain, with an end)argo laid upon its ports. 
During these years the homo manufacturer had no foreign com- 
petition to fear, and factories sprang up to meet the local 
demands, drawing about them laborers and their families, making 



THE TARIFF. 157 

a quick market for the productions of the soil, and placing con- 
sumer and producer side bj side. But this was the result of 
accident and not of deliberate policy. The scene changed when 
the raising of the embargo brought into the country a Hood of 
manufactured articles representing cheap labor, cheap interest and 
cheap capital. Then cauie the demand for tlie levying of such 
duties on the products of foreign labor as would protect the Amer- 
ican in.mufacturer and enable him to pay a suitable compensation 
to the American workman. The first response to this was the 
tariff of 1816, justly styled " The Planters' and Farmers' Tariff," 
because it gave protection to coarser commodities which least 
required it, and witliheld it from those articles in whose pro- 
duction others were to be used. Eight years afterward came 
a third tariff varying little in its general features, but with rates 
of duties slightly increased. Four years later ( in 1828 ) was 
enacted the first thoroughly American protective tariff, but it was 
soon destroyed by the act of July 12, 1832 ( the outcome of tlie 
Nullification controversy ), which completely abolished its pi'otect- 
ive features. Within a few months, through the exertions of 
Mr. Clay, this measure was modified by what was known as the 
compromise tariff act, which continued in force until the pas- 
sage of the protective tariff of 1842. This was in time displaced 
by the free -trad 8 tariff, which went into force four years later, 
in June, 1847. It was followed in 1861 (March 23) by the 
Morrill tariff, a thoroughly protective measure, which with some 
modifications yet remains on the statute books. 

In 1816, notwithstanding it had just emerged from war, the 
country's industrial condition v/as at least hopeful, but the conse- 
quences of the tariff of that year promptly manifested themselves. 
The American manufacturer was undersold at the door of his 
mill by the foreigner ; factories closed, wages shrunk and the 
demand for labor diminished. Prices of all kinds of planter's and 
farmer's produce declined in turn, and to industrial prostration 



158 ZACHARIAII C'IIANDLP:R. 

was speedily added agricultural depression. Henry Clay pro- 
nounced the seven years preceding 1824 the most disastrous this 
nation had ever known. But almost from the moment of its 
passage the country felt the impetus of the protective tariff of 
1S2S. Furnace doors were thrown open; foundries were built; 
the cobwebs that had gathered about factory machinery dis- 
appeared in the whir of busy wheels ; labor came again into 
demand; innnigration increased; the products of farms and plan- 
tations brought good prices; and the public revenue grew until 
the national debt was extinguished. Prosperity thus became 
universal throughout the land. When this })rotective tariff of 
1828 gave way to the gradual reductions in duties of the com- 
promise measure of 1832, there followed a repetition of the 
scenes that succeeded the tariff of 1810. From 1837 to 1842 
mills and furnaces were closed, wages were reduced, laborers 
sought in vain for employment, the poor-houses were filled and 
manufacturers, farmers and planters became baidcrupts together. 
Even the public treasury was unable to borrow at home as small 
a sum as $1,000,000 at any rate of interest, and the great bank- 
ing houses of Europe refused it credit, so that it was forced to 
the humiliation of selling its securities at ruinous discounts. The 
passage of the protective tariff of 1842 marks the date of another 
business revival. Old mines were re -worked and new ones were 
opened. Mill -fires were re -lighted and new mills sprang up in 
all directions. Money became abundant, and public and private 
incomes exceeded all precedent. Farmers and planters secured 
easy markets and ample prices for their produce, and laborers' 
homes grew bright with plenty. Then came the Free -Trade 
tariff of 1846 and the commercial decadence which culminated 
m the disasters of 1857. California and its gold delayed the 
catastrophe but could not avert it. From the moment of the 
repeal of the protective tariff, the inflow of British iron and 
cloth began and the receding tide carried back American gold, 



THE TARIFF. 159 

impoverishing the country. Industry was stricken to the earth, 
and day by day saw the dependence of the United States on 
foreign markets growing until when the crash came it was com- 
plete. The vast Hood of gold from California had gone into 
European vaults and in its stead could only be shown receipts 
for foreign goods consumed and the wrecks of American indus- 
tries. The Morrill tariff was followed by an unparalleled mer- 
cantile and manufacturing development, which not even the 
disastrous effects of an inHated currency (in 1873-76) could 
more than briefly check. 

Mr. Chandler, who knew well these facts, and had learned 
"the American doctrine" in the days of Clay, had taken his 
seat in the Senate when the crash of 1857 came, and was active 
in demanding and shaping that revolution in the revenue system 
which has made the United States one of the great manufactur- 
ing nations of the world. He was an ardent champion of the 
Morrill tariff ( of 1861 ), and aided materially in perfecting its 
details, watching with special vigilance tho?e of its provisions 
which affected the vast interests of the E"orthwest. He believed 
in the largest possible application of the protective principle, 
and favored aiding every American producer and every American 
manufacturer ^vho could complain on valid grounds of foreign 
competition. Every demand for protection, which gave reason- 
able promise of increasing the yield of any staple or of develop- 
ing a new industry, received his energetic support. To any 
revenue measure or proposition, which seemed to him calculated 
to advance foreign at the expense of American interests, he was 
uncompromisingly hostile. The abrogation of the Eeciprocity 
treaty with Canada he labored most assiduously to bring about, 
and he resisted with all his characteristic pertinacity each succes- 
sive effort to restore a compact which imposed such heavy 
burdens upon the lumbermen, salt manufacturers, and farmers of 
the Northwest. Throughout his Senatorial term all measures 



160 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

atfectiug duties in any form or proposing any modiiication in 
their schedules found him alert, \vell - informed, and determined 
to maintain the protective policy against any assault.* Very 
nnicli the greater, and undoubtedly the most effective, part of 
liis labors for an American tariff was put forth in committee- 
rooms and in the earnest use of argument and influence Avith 
fellow -Congressmen ; he I'clied nmcli more upon this Moik than 
upon speech ■ making for results — and results he always ranked 
far above display or mere publicity. Still he spoke iioi nnfre- 
quently on tariff questions, and a few quotations will illustrate 
satisfactorily liis positions and methods. This passage shows how 
radical was his protectionism : 

This nation to-day should be an exporter of iron instead of un importer. 
Tl)ere is no valid reason why we should bu}' one single poiuid of iron from 
any other nation on the globe. Our moiuitains are tilled with the pxu-est ores 
on the face of the earth. . . If I had my way I would absolutely pro- 

hibit the introduction of foreign iron. 

* The following letter is written by a gentleman thoroughly familiar with the history 
of tariff legislation at Washington for many years: 

Washington, D. C, Jan. 5, 1880. 

Some eight years ago, when a serious reduction in the copper tariff was proposed, I 
know that Mr. Chandler rendered valuable aid in bringing the facts before the Senate in 
his clear, terse way— going straight to the mark. Then, as always in practical matters, 
his prompt manner, his business knowledge, and his immense power of will made him the 
man to be called on, and he ever responded to -the call, and had a power wonderful indeed 
to "push things." When the act to reduce internal revenue taxes— which had passed the 
House almost unanimously, and had been perfected by the mutual labors of Congressional 
committees and representative business men — was before the Senate for final action iu 
March, 1808, an effort was made by Senator Fessenden, of Maine, to add to it as a "rider" 
a clause affecting the copper tariff, which would surely have delayed if not defeated the 
measure. Senator Chandler spoke ten minutes, putting concentrated power in his words, 
and showing the great importance of passing the act and the needless mischief that must 
come of saddling it with another question. He succeeded In defeating the Fessenden 
amendment, the act passed without it, and it reduced the annual burden of internal reve- 
nue taxation some $60,003,000 (all this internal). 

The Senator's views on tariff legislation were broad and comprehensive, recognizing 
the interdependence of all branches of industry and the importance of such action as 
should bear with equal justice on all ; knowing no East, nor West, nor South— no petty 
and narrow jealousy between farmer and merchant and manufacturer— hut seeking the 
wise care and healthy growth of a varied home industry all over the land. 

On the.se subjects he showed practical sagacity and the same moral courage and 
bold vigor that marked his great efforts for freedom and justice to all in the last and 
grandest year, which so nobly closed a pubhc cai'eer which will live and giow in the minds 
of tutui-e generations. Very truly yours, Giuis b. steuuin.s. 



I 



THE TARIFF. 161 

The context does not sustain an absolutely literal construction 
of the last sentence. Mr. Chandler had seen Michigan when its 
copper mines were unworked, its limitless riches of iron undis- 
covered, its salt deposits unknown, and its pine forests unfelled. 
He had seen these industries passing through various stages of 
prosperity and disaster as they were affected by prevailing tariffs, 
now shielded by a wise policy of protection and now at the 
mercy of foreign producers, who at times ( to use their own 
admission ) " vohmtanly incur immense losses m order to destroy 
"American competition and to gain and keep control of Ameri- 
"can markets." He saw these industries grow from nothing, until 
the annual yield of Michigan's copper mmes became 20,266 tons, 
of its iron mines 1,125,231 tons, and of its salt wells 1,885,884 
barrels, and until its lumber product expanded to the enormous 
total of 2,700,000,000 feet in one season. They thus became 
powerful interests, employing a great host of laborers and offer- 
ing support to thousands of families. These facts and the tone 
of what Mr. Chandler said on kindred topics make it plain that 
by the absolute prohibition of the introduction of foreign iron he 
meant not an embargo, but the affordmg of such ample protec- 
tion to the iron industries of the entire country as would make 
it impossible for the products of foreign cheap labor to compete 
in its markets with those of American labor, and as would make 
the United States a seller and not a buyer of iron and its wares. 

"With all his earnestness as a protectionist, he kept the inter- 
ests of labor predominant in his consideration of this subject. 
For instance, in some remarks upon the lumber tariff, he said : 
" It is perfectly well known that the great value of lumber is 
" in the labor and the transportation, and while we in the United 
" States are paying our laborers ( in lumber ) $2 a day, they are 
" in the British Provinces paying but from 75 cents to $1 per 
" day." And he steadily voted for such protection of the lumber 
trade as would enable producers engaged in that business to 
11 



162 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

pay large wages, and opposed every suggestion which looked to 
impoverishing or pau])eri/ing the American artisan. He iini- 
formly upheld American industry and labor of every kind against 
the competition of the M'orld. lie felt that the highest civili- 
zation can only be secured through that policy of industrial 
diversification which brings consumer and producer side by side, 
and he favored giving it the widest possible scope. lie fre- 
quently declared, " I cannot vote to discriminate against any 
particular branch," and he firmly believed in protecting every- 
thing his country could produce. His vigilance in caring for all 
interests and his grasp of the practical details of tariff legislation 
will a})pear from one or two brief citations from speeches made 
in 1S()7 on proposed modifications of the Morrill tariff. The 
duty on pig -metal was then $9 per ton, and it was proposed 
in the new bill to admit scrap-iron on the payment of a duty 
of $3. On this proposition Mr. Chandler said : 

The effect of this tariff will be to admit all the rails in the world into 
the United States at a duty of .f3 a ton. We will become the recipients of 
all the scrap-iron in the world. . . . And the effect will be to put out 
every blast furnace in the United States, and stop the mining in every 
mountain in the country. . . . The expense of re -rolling bars is only 
about $:jO a ton. You admit scrap - iron at this nominal duty, and the result 
will be to utterly destroy the revenue you now receive from iron — you will 
import nothing but at the duty of $3 per ton. This scrap - iron is worth two 
or three times as much as pig -metal. Pig -metal has to be puddled once. It 
costs to-day $28 per ton to put pig -metal into scrap, and yet you put a duty 
of $9 per ton on pig -metal and propose a mere nominal duty of $3 per ton 
on scrap. . . . This is absolutely abandoning the whole iron interests of 
the United States, save and excepting the rolling-mills. . . . The State of 
Pennsylvania takes about 300,000 tons of Lake Superior ore to mix with her 
inferior ore, and transports it by water 700 or 800 miles, and afterward by 
land carriage — a very expensive carriage — from 50 to 300 miles. This ore is 
mixed with the Pennsylvania ores, and transported then a long distance at very 
great expense. The demand for pig-iron is for rolling. . . . Calling ma- 
terial nothing, it costs the manufacturers $00 per ton of scrap-iron to take 
the ore and the coal from the mine and deliver at the works, every cent of 
which is labor. . . . There are in the world 100.000 miles of railroads, of 
which 30,000 are in the United States, and (54.000 in tlie rest of the world. 
These railroads are laid, on an average, with rails weighing 50 pounds to the 
yard, and use 49,000 tons net to tlie mile. This gives the 64.000 miles abroad 



THE TARIFF. 1G3 

3,136,000 tons of iron. This has to be re -rolled on an average once in ten 
years ; consequently one - tenth of this amount is let loose upon some country 
every year in the shape of scrap-iron. That would make the amount of rail- 
road scrap alone 313,600 tons per annum, which it is proposed to admit at a 
duty of $3 a ton, and which it costs to-day $60 a ton to put in the form of 
scrap in the United States. This is Free Trade in the broadest sense. It is 
wors*e than that. ... It will build up rolling - mills, but it will break 
down every forge in the United States. ... It will stop our mines in 
Michigan that yield ores richer than any other in the world. ... It will 
make this country the entrepot for the scrap - iron of the world. 

He woiild not build np the rolling -mill at the expense of 
the mine and the blast-furnace. He would not build up one 
industry upon the rums of any other. His many speeches and 
his more numerous votes in the Senate all indicated the same 
clear purpose to avoid discrimination against home interests 
where possible, and to protect everything American against every- 
thing of foreign production. 

One phase of this many - sided question which made a deep 
impression upon Mr. Chandler remains to be mentioned. In 
common with all thoughtful Americans, during the course of the 
rebellion he realized the priceless value of the large - bramed, 
energetic and highly- skilled American mechanic. He Jiad maiked 
these men in every brigade, upon every field of the war, 
enabling commanders to overcome obstacles which without, them 
would have been insurmountable. He had seen mills and fac- 
tories and shops pouring into the storehouses of the government 
the multitudinous articles without which a successful prosecution 
of the war would have been impossible, and that, too, with a 
rapidity which was as amazing as it was unexampled. He was 
from his early manhood a strong protectionist. But when he 
realized what the American working-men had done for the 
country and for freedom, and how its protected trades had served 
the government in its hour of trial, he was still more confirmed 
in the wisdom of the system which fosters American industry 
and secures to the country the priceless heritage of prosperous 
and intelligent laborers and mechanics. 




CHAPTER X. 

SERVICES TO NORTIIWESTERX COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE 
OF INTERNAL IMPKOVEMENTS. 

?POx^ tlie day following tliat on wliicli Mr. Chandler first 
took his seat in the Senate Judah P. Benjamin of 
Louisiana offered a resolution, from a special committee 
^ in regard to the formation of committees, amending the 
thirty- fourth rule of the Senate by providing that thereafter the 
standing committees of that body ( their members are selected 
by the Senate itself and not by its presiding officer) should be 
appointed at the commencement of each session of Congress. 
The Committee on Commerce then, and from that time until 
the special session in the spring of 1875, consisted of seven 
members. Mr. Benjamin's resolution was adopted, and on Marcii 
9th the standing committees for the special session were, on 
motion of Mr. Seward of New York, announced. The Commit- 
tee on Commerce was composed of Messrs. Clay of Alabama, 
chairman, Benjamin of Louisiana, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs 
of Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Bright of Indiana, and 
Hamlin of Maine. Mr. Chandler was assigned to the Committee 
on the District of Columbia, of which Mr. Brown of Mississi])pi 
was chairman. Mr. Hamlin of Maine was also appointed on 
this inferior committee, giving it two Republican members, 
while the Committee on Commerce had l)nt one. The general 
assignment of places to the minority was so inadecpiate and 
unfair that a Republican caucus (the first Mr. Chandler attended) 
liad been called to consider the matter. Mr. Chandler, although 
a new member, was one of its speakers and gave strong expres- 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 165 

sioii to his sense of the injustice witli which both his party and 
the N"ortliwest had been treated. It was decided to make a 
formal protest against the constitution of the committees, and, as 
a result of this consultation, when Mr. Seward's motion was 
made, Mr. Fessenden of Maine, as the spokesman of the Eepub- 
licans, denounced the unfairness of the majority with force and 
vigor. In his remarks he said " that there was not an individual 
" member of the Republican party in the Senate who deemed 
" that a just and fair division had been made in the appointment 
" of the committees, especially two or three of them." He also 
declared that there was not a just and fair division with refer- 
ence to questions coming before the committees, and then gave 
this illustration : " Take, for instance, the Committee on Com- 
" merce. On that committee the Eepnblican party, nnmbering 
" twenty out of the sixty- one members of the Senate, is assigned, 
" of the whole number of seven, one member. . . . The 
" interests of the whole lake region, the interests of New England 
" and of New York, involving, as those large portions of the 
" country do, such an infinite superiority of all its commerce, 
" are found with only two members out of the seven." Mr. 
Hamlin here corrected Mr. Fessenden's statement, by saying, 
" My colleague is mistaken. . . . The interests of which he 
speaks have only one member on that committee, not two." Mr. 
Hamlin was right ; there was bnt one member of the Committee 
on Commerce to represent the immense interests of the country 
of the Great Lakes of the Northwest and of the whole of New 
England and New York, and that single member was liimself. 
But the Republican jjrotest, well-grounded as it was, proved 
then unavailing. 

At the first regular session of the Thirty- fifth Congress, 
beginning in December, 185 T, Mr. Allen, of Rhode Island, pre- 
sented under the rule a new list of the standing committees of 
the Senate for adoption. That on Connnerce was only changed 



166 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

by the substitution of Mr. Allen for Mr. Bright of Indiana, 
increasing its New England but diminishing its Western iiiciiiber- 
ship. Messrs. Hamlin, Chandler and Wilson again made vigorous 
remonstrances against the unjust formation of the standing com- 
mittees as a whole. This was Mr. Chandler's first speech in the 
Senate, and it was as follows : 

I find in the "Globe" of yesterday the following announcement: "The 
"caucus of all parties in the Senate has agreed to constitute tlie committees 
"as follows." And tliea follows a list in detail. This announcement, as I 
understand it, is incorrect. I believe that no such caucus has been held. 1 
am informed that a Democratic caucus was held, and the committees made 
up, leaving certain blanks to be submitted to the Republicans for them to fill. 
They saw fit to fill these blanks, under protest. No such caucus as is 
announced in the statement which I have read was ever held. No assent 
has ever been given by the Repul)licans of this Senate to any such formation 
of committees as is there announced. 

I rise, sir, to protest against this list of committees as presentod here. 
Never before, in the whole course of my observation, have I seen a large 
minority virtually ignored in a legislative body upon important committees. 
Tlii-^ is the first time that I have ever witnessed such a total, or almost total, 
ignoring of a large and influential minority. But, sir, whom and what does 
this minority represent ? It represents — I believe I am correct In saying — 
more than half — certainly nearly one -half — of all the free white inhabitants 
of the.se United States; it represents two tliirds of all the commerce of the 
United States; and more than two -thirds of the revenues of the United 
States ; and yet this minority, representing the commerce and revenues of the 
nation, is expected to be satisfied with one place upon the tail end of a com- 
mittee of .seven on Commerce. I may almost say that that committee is of 
more importance to the Northwest than all the other committees of this body; 
but the great Northwest is totally ignored upon a committee in which it takes 
so deep an interest. Not a solitary member of this body from that portion of 
the country is honored with a position on that committee, and yet you have 
been told of the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of commerce which is 
there looking for protection to this body. 

Sir, we are not satisfied, and we desire to enter our protest against any 
such formation of committees as is here presented. But we would say to the 
gentlemen on the other side of the chamber : You have the power to - day ; 
you can elect your committees as you see fit ; you can give us one represent- 
ative on a committee of five, or one on a committee of seven, or none on any 
of the committees, if you think proper. Exercise that power in your own 
discretion ; but, gentlemen, beware ! for the time is not far distant when the 
measure you mete out to us to - day shall be meted to you again. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 107 

Senators P„gl,, Bayard, G„-in and Bro«-n, from the Dcno 
erafc side defended the list as presented by Mr. Allen, an.l his' 
resolution for Us appointment wa3 adopted by a strict party 
vote of h„.ty to nineteen. The Repnbliean protests were Lain 
unheeded by the Senate, but in less than four years Mr. Clmnd- 
lers prediction, that the situation would be revei^ed, was fnlHIled 
Before Mr. Chandler entered the Senate there had been some 
work done by the United States upon the most serious natural 
obstacle to the navigation of the Great Lakes, the tortuous channels 

L the 'st"r, t: f„*''V"°""' "' "- «'■ Clair river, known 
as the St. Clan- Flat.,." Largely through Senator Cass's efforts 
an appropriation of $i5,000 had been made in the Thirtv- 
fourth Congress (it was passed over Franklin Pierce's veto) f;r 
this work and this sum had been expended under the super- 
vision of Major Whipple in the clearing out of a channel through 
the shoals of about 6,000 feet in length, 150 feet in width, and 
nine fee in depth at low water. This improvement, valuable as 
It was, did not prove at all adequate, and was made much less 
useful m the few following years by a lessening in the depth of 
the water of Lake St. Clair. The rapidly -growing commerce of 
the lakes manifestly demanded the early constniction and per- 
manent maintenance through these shoals of a first-class ship 
eanal, wdiicli could be safely used in all conditions of water 
and weather by vessels of the largest class. Mr. Chandler clearly 
perceived the necessity for this important national work, detei' 
mined to rest not until its completion, and commenced at once his 
attack on the great obstacles in its way-namely, the disposition 
of the older States to undervalue the commercial importance of 
the Northwest, and the traditional hostility of the Democracy to 
14 ;"l^"f ""P'-"™™''*^- The first measure, which (on January 
li, 185S) Mr, Chandler gave notice of his intention to introduce, 
was a bill "making an additional appropriation for deepenino- 
the channel of the St. Clair Flats;" when introduced it w^ 



168 ZACIIAIUAll CIIANDJ.ER. 

referred to the Coniinittee on Coimiierce. There an effort was 
made to strangle it by persistent inaction. Accordingly, on A])i-il 
24, Mr, Chandler introduced in the Senate a resolution instruct- 
ing the Connnittee on Commerce to report back this bill for 
action by the Senate. This resolution not receiving immediate 
consideration, on May 3 he called it up and demanded a vote. 
Mr. Clay, the chairman of the committee, opposed it with much 
temper, and moved to lay it on the table, but this motion was 
lost by one vote. Mr. Clay then attacked Mr. Chandler's resolu- 
tion as insulting to the Committae on Commerce, and said he 
spurned the idea that the committee could be instructed to 
report in favor of a certain appropriation for a certain work, 
and that he should despise himself if he was capable of obeying 
such instructions. Mr. Hamlin, the sole Republican member, 
expressed his gratification at the fact that the Senator from 
Michigan (Mr. Chandler) had offered this resolution; he thought 
that it was appropriate, and that the action of the committee 
called for such instructions. Mr. CUiy having inquired, " "What 
" is the use of having a Cabinet or an engineer corps, if the 
" Senate is to take these matters into its own hands ? " Mr. 
Hamlin replied, "What is the use of a Senate, if the Com- 
"mittee on Commerce, or the Cabinet officers, or the engineer 
" corps, are to control these matters ? '' and insisted that the Com- 
mittee on Commerce was a creature of the Senate, within its 
control, and that if it differed from the Senate in regard to any 
proposition before it, that body had the right to instruct the 
committee what action to take. He added that because the com- 
mittee had agreed to make no appropriation excepting for certain 
specific matters, it did not follow that the Senate must adopt its 
views, and be controlled thereby ; that the servant had no right 
nor authority to bind the master, and that the committee was 
the servant of the Senate. Mr. Clay finally yielded the point 
that the Senate had the right to order a connnittee to leport 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 169 

back the bill, but still objected to tlie proposition to liave it 
instructed to specify a certain amount to be appropriated, and 
Mr. Ciiandler consented to modify his resolution so as to instruct 
the committee to report back the bill for the action of the 
Senate without recommendation as to the amount of the appro- 
priation. Mr. Benjamin, at this point, moved, as a substitute 
for the pending resolution, a general order to the committee 
to report on all public works upon which there had been any 
expenditure, and this motion prevailed. Mr. Chandler, who 
was after a specific pomt and not a mere generality, accepted 
tliis as a defeat, and began anew by giving notice on the spot 
that he should ask leave at a subsequent day to nitroduce a biU 
for the improvement of the St. Clair Flats, making an appro- 
priation of $55,000, this being the amount estimated by the 
United States engineers as necessary at that tune. On May 10 
lie presented this bill, but the Senate refused to refer it, and 
adopted a motion to lay it upon the table. Mr. Chandler met 
this second defeat without discouragement, and later in the ses- 
sion did succeed after two efforts in procuring the addition of 
this item of $55,000 to the civil appropriation bill. But the 
threat of an executive veto of the whole measure, if this appro- 
priation was not omitted, proved potent with the Senate, and 
it was ultimately stricken out. Mr. Chandler closed his last 
speech on this measure at that session, with a demand for a 
vote by yeas and nays, and these words: 

I want to see who is friendly to the great Northwest, and who is not- 
for we are about making our last prayer here. The time is not far distant 
when, mstead of commg here and begging for our rights, we shall extend our 
hands and take the blessing. After 1860 we shall not be here as beggars. 

Of this resolute struggle of his first Congressional session, 
Mr. Chandler said in an address at St. Johns, in Michigan, on 
Oct. ir, 1858 : 

When I took my seat in the Senate I supposed every section of the 
country would be fairly heard in the details of business. There were twenty 



170 ZAClIAUlAIi CHANDLER. 

Kcpublicau Senators represeuting two - thirds the revcuiK', business and wealth 
of llie couutiy. How were they placed uu eoniniittees '! Uui ot seven in the 
Committee on Commerce they had one. I call attention to this fact. It bears 
the mark of design. How does this work ? . . . I introduced at an early 
day a bill appropriatmg money for the St. Clair Flats, and it went to this 
Southern Committee on Commerce. 1 procured all the necessary maps and 
plans and estimates, and gave them into their charge. One hundred days 
rolled away and they had not deigned to examine them. I then introduced a 
resolution instructing them to report. Subsequently I introduced a bill myself 
which was laid on the table. By the most untiring efforts I succeeded in 
getting the desired appropriation tacked upon an appropriation bill and passed. 
But the President's friends threatened a veto of the whole bill unless this was 
stricken out — and that was done. Thus committees wcro packed against us 
and we were thwarted at every turn. Thousands of dollars can be obtained 
for almost any creek in the South, while the inland seas of the North are 
denied a dollar, and we are left to take care of ourselves the best we can. 

The second session of the Thirty -fifth Congress began in 
December, 1858, and on the 21st of that month Mr. Chandler 
moved to take his St. Clair Flats bill from the table. This time 
it was ])assed by a vote of 29 to 22, and sent to the House where 
it encountered a vigorous opposition but was finally passed, 
its introducer working for it with the utmost energy in the 
committee - rooms, on the floor, and by private soKcitation. It 
reached Mr. Buchanan in the last days of that Congress, and he 
killed it by withholding his signature but without a formal veto. 
The Thirty -sixth Congress met in December, 1859, and on the 
4th of January Mr. Chandler's bill to deepen the St. Clair Flats 
channel made its apj)earance. On February 2 Mr. Buchanan 
informed Congress, in a special message, of his reasons for 
"pocketing" the measure at the last session. This veto took 
the position that the improvement of har])()rs and the deepening 
of the channels of rivers should be done by the respective States, 
and suggested that Michigan in conjunction with Upper Canada 
shoidd provide the necessary means to ctirry out the contenij)lated 
improvements in the channels of eommerce between those two 
countries, whereas the jilain fact was that the interest of that 
State in such works was a mere tithe of that of the wlu.le 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 171 

Northwest. Mr. Chandler reviewed this message at length in 
the Senate on February 6, exposing Mr. Buchanan's misstate- 
ments in detail, and denouncing the Democratic construction of 
the constitution. Jefferson Davis at once came to the defense of 
the veto on constitutional grounds, and a running debate followed 
on the subject between Messrs. Chandler and Bingham of Mich- 
igan, Hamlin, Crittenden, Davis, Toombs, Wigfall and others. 
Mr. Crittenden condemned the veto, while Toombs and Wigfall 
joined Davis in its defense. Thus the plotters of rebellion 
assumed a hypocritical attitude as defenders of the constitution. 
Their treasonable daggers were yet concealed beneath their Sena- 
torial togas, as they stood in their high places and assumed a 
virtue that they never had, that of being patriots with a deep 
regard for the fundamental law of the land. No action followed 
this debate, but on February 20 Mr. Chandler moved that his 
bill be made the special order for tlie 23d. This motion pre- 
vailed, but when that day arrived the Senate refused to proceed 
with its consideration, Mr. Chandler protesting against this delay 
in a speech pointing out the necessity for prompt action. On 
March 13 he moved to take the bill from the table but the 
Senate refused. Six days later he renewed the motion with the 
same result. Eleven days after that he did succeed in getting 
the measure made the special order for April 10, but again 
other business displaced it, and so no action was taken before 
adjournment. The second session of this Congress connnenced 
m December, 1861, with civil war imminent and no chance for 
the consideration of any project of internal improvement. At 
the meeting of the next Congress the Democracy found itself in 
a petty minority, and remained powerless at Washington for 
many years. As soon as it became plain that rebellion could 
not destroy the life of the nation, Mr. Chandler brought forward 
again his bill for the improvement of the channels at the head 
of Lake St. Clair, and with the powerful support of his col- 



1T2 ZACIIAKIAH CHANDLER. 

leagues and the cominercial interests of the Xjrthwest obtained 
without dithculty from KepubHcan Congresses such apj)ro])ria 
tions as were required for the prompt construction of a gieat 
ship -canal, ranking to-day among the most important and. useful 
of the public works of this continent. Its liistory and statistics 
are given in this extract from an official report for the year 
ending June 30, 1879: 

This canal (according to its present plan) was projected by Col. T. J. 
Cram, of the Corps of Engineers, in August, 18(50, as the l)est method of 
improving navigation at the mouth of the St. Clair river. He proposed open 
ing the lower tortuous reach of the south channel, and making a direct cut 
from its mouth proper to deep water in Lake St. Clair. His project was 
approved, and construction began on the 20th of August, 1867, under contract 
with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada. The original plan was a straight 
canal 300 feet wide in the clear, and 13 feet deep at low stage of water, pro- 
tected by dykes 5 feet in height and 58 feet wide on top, built of the material 
dredged from the channel and thrown behind a pile and timber revetment. 
The canal was completed in the autumn of 1871, and turned over to the 
charge of Maj. O. M. Poe, Corps of Engineers, on the 11th of December. As 
completed, the banks are 7,221 feet in length, and constructed mostly of 
dredged sand thrown behind a revetment consisting of piling in two rows 
driven 13 feet apart and parallel, and capped with a timber superstructure 
5 feet high, the front row being supplemented with a single row of sheath- 
piling to prevent the sand bank from washing back into the canal. As origi 
nally planned, the reverse faces of the embankment were to be permitted to 
take their natural slope, but as it was found that the banks if left so would 
be gradually washed away, they were secured eventually by a pile and plank 
revetment. The timbers in the superstructure were carbolized to prevent 
rotting, but the process proved a disastrous failure, owing to its imperfect 
application, and the timbers thus treated are as a general rule at this date 
a mere shell with a core of dry rot. The banks were planted with willows 
and sodded in some places. The history of the work since Major Poe took 
charge, excepting as regards tlie deepening of the channel for 200 feet of its 
width to a depth of 16 feet, as projected by that officer, has been a monoto- 
nous routine of stopping leaks on the canal face, due to the in^])erfection of the 
single row of sheath - piling, whi(;li permits the sand to be sucked tlirough by 
passing vessels, and propeller- wheels working near tlie revetment. These 
leaks have been stopped from time to time at various points by various devices, 
such as marsh sod, etc. . . . The deepen iiig of the canal was begun imder 
Major Poe's direction by contract with Mr. John Brown of Thorold. Canada. 
in June, 1873, and finished September 23. 1878. under the direction of Major 
"Weitzel, avIio had in Die meanwliile relievi-d Major Poe. 



174 ZACIIAllIAH CHANDLER. 

Up to the time when the canal was turned over as completed to Major 
Poe, it cost in construction and repair $472,837.84. There was subsequently- 
expended by ^lajors Poe and Weitzel $101,5;:5;J.(53, partly in repairs, but mainly 
in deepening tiie canal ; and afterward, up to the close of the present tiscal 
year, $15),1G2.78 were expended in repairs and protection. It will thus be seen 
that the canal lias thus far cost $586,111.50 in construction, improvement and 
repair. . . . Colonel Cram's original estimate of the cost of this work 
was $428,754. The whole amount appropriated has been $590,000. The 
annual cost of maintenance is $5,000. There are two light -houses on the 
banks. 

The value of the commerce which annually passes hetAveen 
the willow - clad piers of the canal is estimated by hundreds of 
millions, and in every season its cost has been more than made 
good by the disasters and delays it has averted. Mr. Chandler 
regarded his efforts to secure its construction as the hardest fight 
of his Congressional service, and there is nothing in his public 
life more thoroughly characteristic of the man than the skill, 
energy, and persistence with which he championed this measure 
in the face of the strongest obstacles, and in spite of repeated 
defeats, session after session and Congress after Congress, until 
entire success crowned his labors. Many others co-operated with 
him and aided in securing the ultimate victory ; but circum- 
stances and his indomitable will placed him at the front in the 
decisive struggle, and this great public M'ork is an enduring 
monument of the value of his services to the vast commercial 
interests of the Northwest, 

At the second session of the Thirty -fifth Congress the 
earnest protests of the year before bore fruit, and the Connnittee 
on Commerce then appointed was composed of Senators Clay of 
Alabama, chairman, Bigler of Pennsylvania, T(wmbs of Georgia, 
Ileid of Xortli Carolina, Allen of Rhode Island, Ilandin of 
Maine, and Chandler of Michigan. This commenced Mr. Chand- 
ler's connection with that committee; he remained a member of 
it throughout all his Senatorial terms, and was its chairman and 
inspiring spirit during the years of its greatest activity and use- 



J 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 175 

fulness. It is one of the most important standing committees of 
the Senate of the United States, and during Mr. Chandler's 
chairmanship its labors were gradually increased, partly tlii'ough 
the growing business and commerce of the country, and partly 
by having new topics assigned for its consideration and action, 
because of the prompt attention and rigid scrutiny given to all 
matters coming under the supervision of Mr. Chandler as its 
head. To this committee are referred under the rules nomina- 
tions of collectors of customs, appraisers of merchandise, surveyors 
of customs, of officers appointed to or promoted in the revenue 
marine service, of the chief officers in the life-saving service, 
and of all incumbents of consular positions. It also considers 
bills fixing the compensation of such officers ; bills relating 
to marine hospitals and the customs, consular and life-saving 
services ; bills concerning the interests of the commercial marine 
of the country, including the registry, enrollment and license 
of vessels, their mspection and measurement, tonnage -tax, 
entrance and clearance fees, names and official numbers, the lights 
to be carried, the steam pressure allowed, the providmg of small 
boats and life-saving apparatus on passenger steamers, and 
restrictions upon the number of passengers or kind of freight ; 
and bills granting medals for heroic service in saving life in case 
of shipwreck or similar disaster. To it are referred all measures 
for the improvement of rivers and harbors in the interests of 
commerce ; for the construction of breakwaters, harbors of refuge, 
ship ■ canals, and locks for slack - water navigation ; for the 
building of bridges across navigable rivers, or other waters of 
the United States ; for the establishment of ports of entry and 
ports of delivery ; for the establishment of customs collection 
districts or changing the boundaries thereof ; granting American 
registers to foreign vessels (usually passed where a wreck of a 
foreign vessel has been purchased and rebuilt by an American 
citizen ) ; and relating to the duties and districts of supervising 



176 ZACIIAHIAH CHANDLER. 

and subordinate inspectors of steam cnit't. There is hardly any 
conceivable question relating to vessels of the United States that 
Congress has not power to act upon, and such matters, unless 
pertaining to the naval service, are always referred to the respect- 
ive coniniittees on commerce of the Senate and House, Con- 
gress as a rule following their recommendations where no 
political question is involved. In addition to an immense mass 
of measures coming under the classes enumerated, the Senate 
Committee on Commerce, during Mr. Chandler's connection with 
it, considered and reported bills to admit ship - building material 
free of duty, to prevent the extermination of the fur- bearing 
seals of Alaska, authorizing the appointment of shipping com- 
missioners, and defining a gross of matches. All these facts are 
recited to show the great variety of questions that are referred 
to the Senate Committee on Commerce — greater than are sent 
to any other Congressional committee. 

'No particular changes took place in the personnel of this 
committee as already given until in the last year of Buchanan's 
administration. At the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Con- 
gress it consisted of C. C. Clay, chairman, Bigler, Toombs, 
Clingman, Saulsbury, Hamlin, and Chandler. Senator Hamlin 
having been elected Vice-President, resigned (in January, 1861) 
his Senatorship, and Mr. Baker of Oregon was appointed to fill 
the vacancy thus caused on this committee. In the middle of 
January Mr. Clay resigned to join the rebellion, and A. O. P. 
Nicholson of Tennessee was made a member of the committee 
in his place. On the 21:th of January, 1861, by the unanimous 
consent of the Senate, the Vice - President filled all the vacancies 
on the standing committees caused by the retiring of the Southern 
Senators, and the Committee on Commerce then, as re -consti- 
tuted, consisted of Senators Bigler, chairman, Clingman, Sauls- 
bury, Chandler, Baker, and Nicholson. 

At the special session of the Thirty - seventh Congress (in 
March, 1861) the Senate committees were radically j-e - organized. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 177 

and the new Committee on Commerce, the first appointed by 
the Republican party, consisted of Zachariah Chandler, chairman, 
Preston King. Lot M. Morrill, Henry Wilson, Thomas L. Cling- 
man, Willard Saulsbury, and Andrew Johnson. Mr. Chandler 
continued in the chairmanship until he ceased to be a member 
of the Senate in 1875. Mr. Clingman soon joined the rebels, 
and his place on the committee was filled by Mr. Ten Eyck of 
New Jersey. From session to session changes were made in its 
membership, and among the names on its rolls during the fourteen 
years that Mr. Chandler sat at the head of its table were Edwin 
D. Morgan, James H. Lane, Solomon Foot, Timothy O. Howe, 
James W. Nesmith, Justin S. Morrill, John A. J. Creswell, 
George F. Edamnds, James R. Doolittle, AVilliam P. Kellogg, 
George E. Spencer, Roscoe Conkling, William A. Buckingham, 
J. R. West, John H. Mitchell, John B. Gordon, George R. 
Dennis, and George S. Boutwell. Mr. Chandler was succeeded 
in the chairmanship when he left the Senate by Roscoe Conkling 
of New York ; soon after he was re - elected in 1879 the Demo- 
crats regained control, and the Committee on Commerce of 
the Forty -sixth Senate was organized by them. Mr. Chandler 
was made a member of it, and at the time of his death it 
consisted of Senator Gordon of Georgia, chairman, Ransom of 
North Carolina, Randolph of New Jersey, Hereford of West 
Yirginia, Coke of Texas, Conkling of New York, McMillan of 
Minnesota, Jones of Nevada, and Chandler of Michigan. 

Mr. Chandler's business principles were carried out in his 
committee work as thoroughly as they had been in his mercan- 
tile career. He believed that what was worth doing at all was 
worth doing well. It was the custom of the Senate Committee 
on Commerce to assemble formally once a week, for the con- 
sideration of such petitions and bills as had been referred to it 
for action. Whenever the appointed hour for meeting arrived 
Mr. Chandler was always in his seat, while its other members but 
12 



178 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER 

rarely displayed anything like liis promptitnde. It annoyed the 
chairman to have any one late, and it was his custom to proceed 
with business as soon as a quorum was ])reseut, or if no quorum 
appeared within fifteen or twenty minutes, to assume that there 
was one and commence work ; no protests against this cour?e 
were ever made by the tardy or absent members. The location 
of the room of the Senate Committee on Commerce during Mr. 
Chandler's whole term of Senatorial service was in the north- 
west corner of the capitol, on the floor leading to the galleries. 
Its windows look down upon the city of Washington, v.Hh the 
broad, historic Potomac and the forest - crowned Virginia hilk ^r. 
the distance, and the sunset view from them — including the blue 
glimmering river, the golden gossamer clouds, the green foliage 
upon the brow of the hills in the extreme horizon — could never 
be excelled in an artist's most vivid conception. 

The first bill reported by Mr. Chandler as chairman of the 
Committee on Commerce was one to provide for the collection 
of duties on imports and for other purposes. He brought it in 
five days after the appointment of the committee at the first 
session of the Thirty -seventh Congress, and asked that it should 
be put upon its passage at once. A single objection carried it 
over under the rules until the next day, when it was passed by 
a vote of 36 to 6. The scope of the bill was extensive. It 
provided for confiscating to the United States all vessels belong- 
mg to rebels, for closing ports of entry in rebellious States, and 
for the employment of additional revenue cutters. It also author- 
ized the President under certain circumstances to declare by 
proclamation States, sections, or parts of States, in insurrection 
against the United States, and prohibited all commercial inter- 
course between such insurrectionary States, or parts of States, 
and the rest of the Union so long as the insurrection should 
continue. It was thus among the eiirliest and most important of 
the war measures. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 170 

It is not necessary to occupy space witli the details* of the 
enormous mass of business transacted by the Senate Committee 
on Commerce during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship. It was in 
those years that the sentiment of every section, in favor of 
extending the fostering care of the government to the aid of 
internal commerce, M^as consolidated and organized until it bore 
down all opposition and completely reversed the general policy 
and practice of the United States, llow important and complete 
this revolution was will appear from the table of the appropri- 
ations for river, harbor and kindred improvements made at 
successive Congressional sessions since the foundation of the 
republic. 

Mr. Chandler was the firm friend of an intelligently -planned 
and general system of internal improvements. His labors, and 
those of men like him, have borne fruit in manifold aids to 
commerce scattered over river, lake and ocean — light - houses, 
break - waters, harbors of refuge, straightened and deepened chan- 

*Mr. Chandler entered the Senate when Congress was under the control of Demo- 
cratic majorities. He was in the minority, but he never feared to assert his views, and 
denounce measures of doubtful advantage to tlie best interests of the country. The policy 
of the dominant party had been uniformly adverse to internal improvements — especially 
to making appropriations for harbor and river improvements. Soon after taking his seat, 
Mr. Chandler brought this important subject before the Senate, and insisted upon the 
necessity of fostering and aiding internal commerce. He introduced several measures, 
with this object in view. . . These improvements were not then considered ; but his 
vigorous speeches and persistent efforts subsequently compelled their partial recognition, 
and Mr. Chandler was placed on the Committee of Commerce, of which he was made 
chairman when the Repubhcan party came into power, and so continued to tlie end of nis 
Senatorial labors. It is not too much to say, for it is only the truth, that to Mr. Chandler's 
untiring zeal in this capacity, the country is indebted for many of those magmflcent 
harbor and river improvements, which have been made since the Republican party 
came into power. Says a recent writer — an excellent authority. "The evidences of their 
"utility are seen on every hand, scattered along our seaboard, along our extended lake 
"coast, and upon all our rivers. The beneficent effects of these improvements are demon- 
"strated by our vastly -increased and increasing commerce, its greater safety, the economy 
"with which the work is performed, the extraordinary development of our agricultural 
"and mineral resources and the increased compensation of productive labor." 
Reference is thus made to Mr. Chandler's efforts in behalf of those great internal improve 
ments in aid of the commerce and internal development of the country, in order to 
demonstrate his peculiar fitness for the position which he has just been commissioned to 
&31. — Editorial of the Washington Chronicle of Oct. 20, 1S75, announcing the appointment 
of Zachariah Chandler as Secretary of the Interior. 



ISO 



ZACIIAKLVIi CHANDLER. 



Table giving the Totai- Amount of Monet Appropriations by Congress 
FOR the Improvement of Iln'"EHS and Harbors and the Construc- 
tion OF Ship - Canals since the Beginning op the Government : 



YEARS. 


AMOUNT. 


YEARS. 


AMOrXT. 


»• fl822* . . . 


. . . $34,200 


1853 . . 


.... $900 


i -; 1823 . . . . 


. . . 6,150 


I 1854 . . 


.... 140,000 


1: [1824 . . . 


. . 145,000 


■I 1855 . . 
L 18561 . . 





i 


fl825 . . . 


. . . 40,600 


.... 775,000 


^ 


1826 . . . 


. . . 88,900 


c ri857 . . 




< ] 


1827 . . . 


. . . 160,200 


1 1858 . . 




i 


[1828 . . . 


. . . 505,300 


^ 1 1859 . . 






rl829 , . . . 


. . . 354,200 


m [1860 . . 






1830 . . . 


. . . 377,600 


f 1861 1 




r 


1 


1831 . . . . 
1833 . . . 


. . . 637,000 
. . . 693,500 


1 J 1862 
s 1 1863 


1 






1833 . . . 


. . . 546,300 


^ 1864 


a' 


. . . 537,500 




1834 . . . 


. . . 791,200 




^ b 






1835 . , . 


. . . 505.200 


. fl865 


■3 S 


.... 33,000 




1836 . . . 


. . . 1,198,200 


I 


1866 




. . . 3,579,700 


g ri837 . . . 
^ I 1838 . . . 


. . . 1,681,700 
. . . 1,467,200 


1 


1867 
1868 




.... 4.816.300 
. . . 1.601,500 


a " 1839 . . . 


. . . 18,000 




'1869 


i E 


.... 2,300,000 


> L1840 . . . 






1870 


36 


. . . 4,173,900 


rl841 . . . 
fe 1842 . . . 
g" 1 1843 . . . 


. . . 17,500 




1871 


.... 5,047,000 




a 


1873 


"S § 


. . . 5,603,000 


. . . 233.000 


O 


1873 


S^ 


.... 6,103,900 


L1844 . . . 


. . . 701,500 




1874 


H 


. . . 5,382,500 


(-1845 . . . 
ii 1846 ... 


. . . 7,000 




1875, 




[ . . . . 6,643,500 






[ 1876 . 


.... 5,213,000 


£ j 1847 . . . 


. . . 14,330 


„• ri877 . . 
>. \ 1878 . . 




1 1848 




.... 8,337,000 


, a; fl^-^*^ • • • 
o3 1850 . . . 


. . . 20,000 


W [1879 . . 


7,912.600 








^11 1851 . . . 





Total, . 


.... 180,292,270 




L1853 . . . 


. . . 2.099,300 











NOTES. 

This table only includes 8T50.000 of the $.5,2.V),000 appropriated to pay Ciipt, James 
B. Eads for the jetty improvements at the mouth of the Mississippi. 

The total of these appropriations during the years of Mr. Chandler's term as chairman 
was ^5,610,800, or more than one -half of the entire amount. 



• There were no appropriations for these purposes prior to 1822. 
+ This sum was contained in bills which were passed over the President's veto and 
included the first appropriation for the .St. Clair Flats 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 181 

nels, ship -canals and improved natural highways. He was 
prompt to recognize the claims of all sections, but was especially 
vigilant in regard to the necessities of the Northwest, and his 
memory will long be cherished throughout the region of the 
Great Lakes as that of the most ai-dent and efficient champion 
of its commercial development. 




CHAPTER XT. 

THE OUTBREAK OF THE KEBELLION NO COMPROMISE OF CONSTITU- 
TIONAL KiGirrs. 

'(IE news of the election of Abraham Lincohi to the 
Presidency of the United States — through strictly con- 
stitntional methods, by a large majority of the electoral 
vote and by a plurality of over half a nnllion in the pop- 
ular' vote — was received with cheering and expressions of joy in 
many of the Southern cities. The men who exulted there were 
those who believed that with this pretext sectional passion could 
be kindled into instant rebellion, and they at once set about the 
work of consummating disunion before the close of the term of 
the traitorous and imbecile administration of James Buchanan. 
On Nov. 12, 1860, South Carolina ordered the election of a 
convention to take the formal step of secession, and the other 
cotton States promptly followed its example. Congress met on 
the 3d of December, and listened to a message from President 
Buchanan, in which he said : " After much serious reflection I 
" have arrived at the conclusion that no power to coerce into 
" submission a State which is attempting to withdraw, or lias 
" actually withdrawn, fi'om the confederacy, has been delegated 
''to Congress or to any other department of the Federal govern- 
" ment. It is manifest u})on an inspection of the constitution 
" that this is not among the specific and enumerated powei*8 
" granted to Congress ; and it is equally a]^])arent that its exer- 
" cise is not ' necessary and proper for carrying into execution ' 
" any one of these powers." On December 20 South Carolina 
adopted its ordinanfc of secession. Mississippi did likewise on 



FACING TREASON. 1S3 

Jan. 9, 1861, Florida on January 10, Alabama on January 11, 
Georgia on January 18, Louisiana on January 26, and Texas on 
Februaiy 1. On Feb. 4, 1861, a convention of delegates from 
the seceding States met in the city of Montgomery and proceeded 
to form and organize the " Southern Confederacy." These events 
were attended by popular demonstrations throughout the South, 
in which the Union was denounced with unstinted bitterness 
and its power defied with the utmost audacity, and by the active 
drilling of the local militia and the organization of large bodies 
of armed men. More than all this, the officers of the United 
States in that section abandoned their positions, and sub -treas- 
uries, jjost- offices, large sums of money, arsenals, arms, ammuni- 
tion, fortifications, and vessels of the United States were seized 
in all the leading cities of the South, and used to prepare for 
war upon the power from which they had been stolen. The 
value of the government property thus confiscated by the rebels 
before the nation fired a shot was not less than $30,000,000. 
On Jan. 5, 1861, the United States steamer Star of the West 
was fired upon in the harbor of Charleston and driven out to 
sea, and within that month a bloodless siege of Fort McRae at 
Pensacola compelled its surrender to rebel forces by a United 
States garrison. Amid these events the traitors in Buchanan's 
Cabinet boldly resigned their portfolios, and Southern Congress- 
men with insolent words left their seats at the capitol " to join 
their States." The President himself was fitly described by 
Henry Winter Davis as " standing paralyzed and stupefied amid 
" the crash of the falling republic, still muttering, ' Not in my 
" time ; not ■ in my time ; after me the deluge.' " 

There were three ways of meeting these overt acts of high 
treason, namely: (1.) Submitting, either by sympathy and con- 
nivance, by frank surrender, or by an equally effective supineness. 
(2.) Meekly offering to rampant rebellion the bribe of fresh 
concessions to slavery. (3.) Treating armed secession as treason 



184 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

and its promoters as traitors, and dealing witli it and them as 
such. The first method did not lack for supporters outside of 
the South. Thousands of Northern Democrats justified secession 
and promised the cotton States support. Their papers predicted 
that in case of war '' it would be fought in the North,"* that 
" no Democrat would be found to raise an arm against his 
brethren of the South,'"' f and that " if troops should be raised 
" in the North to march against the people of the South, a fire 
" in the rear would be opened upon such troops which would 
" either stop their march altogether or wonderfully accelerate it."* 
The Mayor of the great city of New York suggested in his 
annual message that that metropolis might well consider if the 
time did not seem to be at hand when it could profitably throw 
off allegiance to the United States and erect itself into "a free 
city." In public meetings and in party conventions like utter- 
ances were heard and applauded, all justifying the declaration of 
Lawrence M. Keitt in the city of Charleston that "there are a 
" million of Democrats in the North who, when the Black 
" Republicans attempt to march upon the South, will be found a 
" wall of fire in their front." These sym2)atliizers with rebellion 
were reinforced by the holders of anti - coercion theories, by 
commercial timidity, and — most unexpectedly — by some Repub- 
lican sentiment in favor of permitting peaceful separation rather 
than facing civil war. This sentiment was fortunately short- 
lived and not cowardly in its origin, but it found an advocate 
in, and was given public expression by, the most infiucntial 
Republican journalist of that period, Horace Greeley, and it did 
much to encourage rebel arrogance and to distract the national 
councils. But that was the most numerous class which comprised 
the men who proposed to meet actual civil war with servile 
tenders to traitors in arms of new guarantees for slavery and 
with humble petitions for their acceptance. With the meeting 

•Detroit, Mich. 'Free Press." t Bangor. Me.. "Union." 



I 



FACING TREASON. 185 

of Congress in December, 1860, these gentlemen became tlie 
conspicuous figures at Washington, and for three months labored 
industriously upon compromise schemes, every one of which was, 
in its essence, a proposition that Freedom should do homage to 
Slavery, and that the verdict of the jDcople at the polls should 
be sha:.nefully reversed to placate men who had deliberately 
plotted treason, and who again and again rejected with frank 
contempt otfers of " conciliation." There were some who co- 
operated in these movements for the sake of gaining time and 
keeping the border States out of rebellion until Abraham Lin- 
coln was inaugurated, but the great source of the compromise 
clamor of that winter was either some feeling of friendliness to 
the slave power or moral flaccidity. 

It need not be said that Mr, Chandler was not found in 
either of these classes. For three years he had regarded this 
crisis as imminent. He did not believe that the South would 
now abandon its cherished dream of independent empire for any 
compromise. He did not propose to shrink back one inch before 
armed rebellion or to surrender one iota of principle to traitorous 
threats. He went to Washington determined to maintain the 
supremacy of the government at every cost, to listen to no plans 
of concession, to offer to disunionists only the alternative of 
obedience to the constitution or the penalties of treason, and to 
labor incessantly to stir into indignant action the slumbering 
sentiment of nationality in the hearts of the Northern people. 
It is in such hours that men of his indomitable stamp step to 
the front, and he became at once a pioneer leader of that 
uncompromising and tireless spirit which was the citadel of the 
Union cause. He spoke but rarely on political questions during 
the last session of the Thirty -sixth Congress, but was active in 
all the Republican consultations of that eventful period. In 
them he steadfastly opposed any policy that savored of bending 
to or tem^Dorizing with rebellion, and in the face of not a little 



180 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

Republican demoralization urged tliat the crisis should be met 
with the spirit of Jackson and of Cromwell. Speaking of this 
session he afterward said : " If I could have had my way, when 
" treason was proclaimed on the Hoor of the Senate the traitor 
" would never have gone free from the capitol." With the 
Southern leaders he was frank in his denunciations of their 
course and ])lans. In a chance conversation at this time with 
the craftiest of their number, Slidell of Louisiana, he asked how 
the pending struggle would end, and Slidell replied, "Oh, we 
will all go out, and the Union will be broken up." 

'" And what are you going to do with the mouth of the 
Mississippi ^ " said Mr. Chandler. 

"We will, of course, have to seize and hold that," was the 
answer, " but we will not tax your commerce." 

To this, Mr. Chandler's indignant response was, " We own 
"that river, Mr. Slidell; we bought and paid for it; and, by 
" the Eternal, we are going to keep it. It was a desert when 
" we bought it, and we will make it a desert again before we 
" will let you steal it from us." 

Mr. Chandler labored assiduously to thwart the plots of the 
rebel leaders, and to make such preparation as wns ])()ssible for 
the coming strife. It \vas at this time that he formed that close 
intimacy with Edwin M. Stanton, which continued until the 
death of "the Carnot of the United States." Mr. Stanton, as 
the Attorney' -General of the Buchanan Cabinet in its closing 
months, rendered service of the largest value to the nation by 
urging vigorous measures on his imbecile chief, by boldly con- 
fronting the traitors who were among his colleagues, aiul by 
secretly and promptly informing the Republican leaders of each 
new developm mt of the disunion conspiracy as revealed in Cabinet 
consultations. His information and counsels furnished sure guid- 
ance at a time of the greatest peril, and this it was that led to 
the early appointment by Mr. Lincoln to the Secretaryship of 



FACING TREASON. 187 

War of a man whom the public then chiefly knew as a minor 
Cabinet officer in a detested administration. Mr. Chandler always 
rated Mr. Stanton's services to the Union cause in the early 
months of 1861 as second only in value to his herculean labors in 
the War Department ; placed the highest estimate upon his ability, 
vigor, and patriotism; aided greatly in securing his appointment 
and confirmation as one of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet; remained his 
firui friend and counselor, and was largely instrumental in 
obtaining from President Grant the nomination to the justiceship 
of the Supreme Court which so shortly preceded his death. It 
was also at this time that Mr. Chandler began to distrust the 
political fidelity of Mr. Seward, whose spoken suggestious of 
compromise and whose persistent negotiations with rebel emis- 
saries, however diplomatic in origin and intent, were fruitful 
sources of Southern hope and Northern weakness. Time increased 
rather than diminished this dislike, and Mr. Chandler was always 
an impatient critic of Mr. Seward's influence upon the Lincoln 
administration, and saw in the course of the Secretary of State 
of Andrew Johnson's Cabinet only the fulfillment of his own 
suspicions and predictions. 

The secret history of these exciting days, teeming with 
incident and concealing many startling revelations, has yet been 
but sparingly written; it is doubtful if the veil will ever be 
more than slightly lifted. Mr. Chandler himself guarded scrupu- 
lously from public knowledge much that was well known to him 
and a few associates and would have shed light on the hidden 
springs of actions of vast moment. This class of information he 
treated as state secrets, whose perishing with the actors in the 
great drama was desirable for public reasons. A well-known 
Washington journalist, who dined one day with Mr. Chandler 
and Mr. Wade, and listened with interest to their reminiscences 
of " war times," suggested to these gentlemen that their recollec- 
tions should be recorded while thev were still fresh for the 



188 ZACIIAKIAIi CHANDLER. 

benefit of liistory, and did succeed at first in obtaining their 
consent to an arrangement by wliicli the two "war Senators" 
were to devote one evening in each week to the rehition of the 
inside history of the period between the fall of 1860 and the 
end of Johnson's administration. These narratives were to be 
taken down by a stenographer, whose notes were to be written 
out, carefully compiled, and subjected to the revision of Messrs, 
Chandler and Wade. The manuscript was then to be sealed and 
placed in such keeping as should make it certain that it would 
not be published until the lapse of many years. On the 
following Saturday night the literary gentleman was promptly at 
Mr, Chandler's residence with the stenographer. Mr. Wade 
shortly afterward came in, and at once said: "I have been 
" thinking this matter over. Chandler, and you must allow me to 
" decline. There is no use in telling what we know unless we 
" tell the whole truth, and if I tell the whole truth I shall blast 
" too many reputations. These things would be interesting and 
" valuable if they were preserved in a book, but they •would not 
'•be as vahuil)le as the reputations that would l)e destroyed. The 
" days we were going to talk about were exciting days, when 
" good men madfe mistakes, and their mistakes ought to be for- 
" gotten." Mr, Chandler promptly assented, and the reminis- 
cences were never written. 

In the Senate at this time Mr, Chandler's course was bold 
and straightforward. On Feb. 19, 1861, he denounced on its 
floor " traitors in the Cabinet and imbeciles in the Presidential 
chair," He steadfastly opposed the Crittenden Compromise, M'ell 
described by Charles Sumner as " the great surrender to slavery," 
and the circumstances of his opposition to "the Peace Congress" 
attracted national attention then and afterward. The Legisla- 
ture of Virginia in January, 1801, adopted resolutions inviting 
a conference of . delegates from the various States to meet at 
AVashington on February 4, and consider how the pending 



FACING TREASON. 189 

"unhappy controversy" could be adjusted by (of course) some 
plan giving "to the people of the slaveholding States adequate 
guarantees for the security of their rights." Twenty -two States 
answered this invitation, and their representatives, presided over 
by John Tyler, deliberated in Washington for nineteen days, and 
in the end recommended to Congress a so-called "compromise 
measure," which was thus justly characterized at the time: 
" Forbearing all details, it will be enough to say that they under- 
" took to give to slavery positive protection in the constitution, 
"with new sanction and immunity — making it, notwithstanding 
" the determination of the fathers, national instead of sectional ; 
" and, even more than this, making it one of the essential and 
"permanent parts of our republican system." Its origin and its 
avowed object made this body distrusted from the outset by the 
sincere anti- slavery men, who did not believe that it could 
accomplish anything except to still farther debauch the public 
mind of tlie North. The result proved that it was called in the 
interest of slavery, and was designed to strengthen that system. 
Mr. Chandler from the outset opposed all Republican participa- 
tion in this Congress, and, through the urgent recommendations 
of its Senators, Michigan was one of the five Northern States 
Avhich did not send delegates. But after the Congress had met 
and was at work, it was thought that the friends of freedom on 
its floor might be able to accomplish something if they were 
increased in numbers, and accordingly application was made to 
Mr. Chandler and Mr. Bingham to procure the appomtment by 
their State of delegates who could take their seats before final 
action was reached. Under such circumstances those gentlemen 
telegraphed to Lansing a request for the appointment of a 
delegation, and followed the message up with letters of the same 
tenor, which, although in the nature of private communications 
to Governor Blair, were shown at Lansing, and soon apjieared 
in the newspapers ; they were as follows : 



190 ZACIIAKIAII ClIA^'DLEH. 

Washington, Feb. 11, 1801. 

My Dear Governor : Governor Bingham and myself telegrajihed you on 
Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to send delegates to 
tlie Peace or Compromise Congress. They admit that we were right and that 
tliey were wrong ; that no Republican States should liave sent delegates but 
they are here, and cannot get away. Ohio, Indiana and Khode Island are 
caving in, and there is danger of Illinois ; and now they beg of us for God's 
sake to come to their rescue, and save the Republican party from rupture. I 
hope you will send stiff- backed men or none. The whole thing was gotten up 
against my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still 1 hope as 
a matter of courtesy to some of qur erring brethren, that you will send the 
delegates. Truly your friend, Z. CHANDLER. 

Sis Excellency Austin Blair. 

P. S. Some of the manufacturing States think a light would be awful. 
Without a little blood-letting, this Union will not, m my estimation, be worth 
a rush. 

, Washington, Feb. 10, ISfU. 

Dear Sir : When Virginia proposed a convention in Washington, in 
reference to the disturbed condition of the country, I regarded it as another 
effort to debauch the public mind and a step toward obtaining that concession 
which the imperious slave power so insolently demands. I have no doubt, at 
present, but that was the design. I was therefore pleased that the Legislature 
of Michigan was not disposed to put herself in a position to be controlled by 
such influences. The convention has met here, and within a few days the 
aspect of things has materially changed. Every free State, I think, e.\C('[)t 
Michigan and AVisconsin, is represented, and we have been assured by friends 
upon whom we can rely, that, if those two States should send delegations of 
true, unflinching men, there would probably be a majority in favor of the 
constitution as it is, who would frown down the rebellion by the enforcement 
of laws. These friends have urged us to recommend the appointment of dele- 
gates from our State, and in compliance with their request, ]\Ir. Chandler and 
myself telegraphed to you last night. It cannot be doubted that the recom- 
mendations of this convention will have a very considerable influence upon 
the public mind and upon the action of Congress. I have a great disinclination 
to any interference with what should properly be submitted to the wisdom 
and discretion of the Legislature, in which I place great reliance. But I liope 
1 shall be pardoned for suggesting that U may be justifial>le and proper by 
any honorable means to avert the lasting di.sgrace which will attach to a free 
people who, by the peaceful exercise of the ballot, have just leleased them 
selves from the tyranny of slavery, if they should now succumb to treasonable 
threats, and again submit to a degrading thraldom. If it shcMild be deemcil 
proper to send delegates, I think if they could be here by the OOth it would 
be in time. I have the honor, with much respect, to be. Yours truly. 

K. S. BINGHAM. 



FACINa TREASON. 191 

The Legislature of Michigan refused to follow even these 
recommendations (although an effort to make the two Senators 
themselves delegates received a strong support), and that State 
was not represented at any stage of the abortive Peace Congress. 
On the 27th of February Senator Powell of Kentucky presented 
to the Senate newspaper copies of these letters, and then moved 
to lay aside the army appropriation bill which was pending, in 
order that the Senate could proceed at once to amend the con- 
stitution. He added that it might " better be at that than be 
" appropriating money to support an army that is to be engaged, 
" it seems, in the work of blood - letting." Mr. Chandler followed 
by stating that the letter was a private one of which no copy 
had been preserved, but that whether the printed copy was 
accurate or not he adopted it as his, and would at another time 
speak on the questions it involved. He added : " The people of 
" Michigan are opposed to all compromises. They do not believe 
" that any compromise is necessary ; nor do I. They are pre- 
" pared to stand by the constitution of the United States as it 
" is, to stand by the government as it is ; aye, sir, to stand by 
"it to blood if necessary." On the 2d of March Mr. Chandler 
made his promised speech in reply to Mr. Powell. He com- 
menced : " I desire to ask the Senator whether, after we have 
" adopted this or any other compromise, he is prepared to go 
" with me, and with the Union - loving men of this nation, for 
" enforcing the laws of the United States in the thirty - four 
" States of this Union." Powell's response was : " I am for 
" enforcing the laws in all the States that are within the 
" Union, but 1 am opposed to making war on the States that 
" are without the Union. I am opposed to coercing the seceded 
" States. . . . We have no right, under the constitution, to 
" make war on those States." Upon this frank admission from 
one of its most ardent advocates of the utter fruitlessness of 
compromise, this confession that it would be a sale without con- 



11)2 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

eideratioii, Mr. Chandler's coinmout was : " That is. just what I 
" e.vpected ; it is just what I want the North to know; that 
" those men who profess to be for the Union with an 'if are 
" against it under all circumstances." He then quoted the letter 
of Tlionias Jefferson written at Paris on Nov. 13, 1787, to 
Colonel Smith, and closing as follows : 

And what country can preserve its liberties if the rulers are not warned 
from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistau-ce V Let them 
take up arms ! The remedy is to set them right as to facts ; pardon and 
pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The Tree 
of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and 
tyrants. It is its natural manure. 

And with this authority of Thomas Jefferson on " a little 
blood - letting '' as his text, Mr. Chandler spoke nearly an hour, 
denouncing the treason about him with unsparing vigor and 
branding the Democracy as responsible for the impending crime 
against the nation. In the face of such distempers he did not 
hesitate to pronounce war for the suppression of rebellion the 
only adequate remedy. The tone and style of this speech will 
appear from these extracts: 

"^ This is not a question of compromise. It is a question whether we have 
or have not a government. If we have a government it is capable of making 
Itself respected abroad and at home. If we have not a government, let this 
miserable rope of sand which purports to be a government perish, and I will 
shed no tears over its destruction. Sir, General Washington reasoned not so 
when the whisky rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania ; he called out the posxe 
eomiiatus and enforced the laws. General Jackson reasoned not so when South 
Carolina in 18;)2 raised the black flag of rebellion ; he said : "By the Eternal, 
I will hang them;" and he would have done it. 

After these illustrious examples, we are told that six States have seceded, 
and the Union is broken up, and all we can do is to send commissioners to 
treat with traitors with arms in their hands ; treat with men who have fired 
upon your flag ; treat with men who have seized your custom - houses, who 
have erected batteries upon your great navigable waters, and who now stand 
defying your authority ! What will be the result of such a treaty ? You 
would stand disgraced before the nations of the earth, your naval officers 
would be insulted by the Algerincs, your bonds would not be worth the paper 
on which they are written, to-morrow. If you submitted to this degradation 



FACING TREASON. 193 

your gosrernment would stand upon a par with the governments of South 
America and the Central American States. 

Sir, I will never submit to this degradation. If the right is concedetl to 
any State to secede from the Union, without the consent of the other States, 
I am for immediate dissolution ; and if the State which I have the honor m 
part to represent will not follow that advice, . I, for one, upon my own 
responsibility and alone, will resign my seat in this body, and leave this gov- 
ernment, so soon as I can prepare the small matters I shall have to arrange, 
for emigration to some country ivhere they have a yovernment. I would rather joui 
the Comanches ; / will never live under a government that has not the power to 
enforce its laws. ... I see before me some of those men who have been 
lighting this corrupt organization (the Democratic party) for the last twenty 
years, who now turn about in dismay at the threatened disruption of the 
government. Why are they terror-stricken? Why do they not stand firm 
and denounce you as infamously connected with a plundered treasury instead 
of cowering before your threats ? This thing has gone far enough. 
Sir, this Union is to stand; it will stand when your great-grandchildren and 
mine shall have grown gray — aye, when they shall 'have gone to their last 
account, and their great-grandchildren shall have grown gray. But the traitors 
who are to-day plotting against this Union are to die. I do not say, literally, 
that they are all to die personally and absolutely ; but they are soon to pass 
from the stage, and better and purer men are to take their places. God grant 
that that consummation, "so devoutly to be wished," may be early ac'com- 
plished ! . . . 

For the Union - loving men of this nation, for the true patriots of the 
land, there is no reasonable concession that I would not most cheerfully make; 
but for those men who profess to be Union men and who are Union men 
with an "if"; who will take all the concessions we will give them — all that 
they demand — and then turn about and say "your Union is dissolved," I 
have no respect ; and for them I will do nothing. For the men who love 
this Union, who are prepared to march to the support of the Union, who will 
stand up in defense of the old flag under which their fathers fougiit and 
gloriously triumphed, I have not only the most profound respect, but to then- 
demands I can scarce conceive anything that I would not yield. But, sir, 
when traitorous States come here and say, unless you yield this or that estab- 
lished principle or right, we will dissolve the Union, I would answer in brief 
words — no concession, no compromise; aye, give us strife even to blood 
before yielding to the demands of traitorous insolence. 

This " blood letter " ( as it was commonly termed ) Mr. 

Chandler was often called upon to meet in the course of his 

subsequent public life, and he never failed to justify its writing 

or to stand by its language. In the extra session of the Senate 

13 



194: ZACIIAKIAH CHANDLER. 

in March, 1801, John C. Breckenridge alhided to "Senatorial 
threats of blood-letting," and Mr. Chandler retorted by re-reading 
Jefferson's letter and re -asserting the purpose to meet attempted 
treason with force. In the last session of the Thirty ■ seventh 
Congress (on Feb. 13, 1803) William A. Richardson of Illinois 
said in a debate upon a war loan measure : 

The Senator from Michigan, at the outset of this controversy, declared in 
a letter to the Governor of the State of Michigan, that this government was 
not worth a rush without some blood- lettmg. Standing in array against all our 
history for seventy years, standing in array against the peace of the country 
for seventy years, the constitution itself in every proceeding from that time to 
this being but compromise, he declared at the outset agamst any compromise 
for the peace of the country, and he is responsible to a very large extent for 
the arbitrament of war that is now upon us. He is responsible for those 
consequences that are now flowing to us from the position assumed then 
strongly by him at the head of a dominant party in the country. 

Mr. Chandler was prompt in meeting this attack, and said: 

Mr. President : I do not propose to - day to go over my record. It has been 
made before the country and the world. There let it stand. So far as my 
loyalty and devotion to the country are concerned, I doubt if any man ever 
seriously attempted to cast suspicion on them. But, as I said before, my record 
is made. 1 stand upon it and am proud of it in all its entirety. The Sena- 
tor alluded to tlie blood-letting letter, as it is called in Michigan. That letter 
has been discussed before the people of that State. Thousands and tens of 
thousands, and, for aught I know, hundreds of thousands of copies of it, 
were scattered broadcast throughout that State. What were the circumstances 
under which that letter was written ? We had traitors in this body proclaim- 
ing from day to day that this government was then destroyed, and there was 
no rebuke from the Senator of Illinois or his friends. There was no rebuke 
from the administration then in power, whom he aided in placing there. They 
proclaimed that the government was entirely destroyed ; and that it should 
never be restored. Senators proclaimed on this Hoor that you might give them 
a blank sheet of paper and allow them to fill it as they pleased, and still 
they would not live with us under the same government. . . . Here in 
this hall and in the other chamber, and on the streets wherever you went, 
you heard traitors declare that the government was ended, declare that if 
you attempted to coerce the rebel States it would lead to war. I believed 
then, as I believe now, that they intended to break up this government ; that 
they intended a disruption of the nation. And I l)elieved then, as I believe 
now, that without the intervention of armed force to put down armed rel)els 
and traitors, your government was destroyed. Believing it, I so wrote to the 



FACING TREASON. 195 



governor of a sovereign State — a confidential 



note, It is true, but that is of 



no account. I stand by that letter precisely as it was written. A majority of 
the people of this nation believe to-day, as I believed then, that there was 
and could be but one way to save the nation, and thai was by putting down 
armed rel)els by force. That is what I believed then, what I believe now. 

Another thing the Senator says: Nobody is more responsible for this 
bloody and wicked war than myself. Mr. President, let us look a little into 
the matter of responsibdity. There is a responsibility somewhere, and a fearful 
responsibility, for this rebellion and this dreadful war, but that responsibility is 
not upon my soul. . . . You may go through all the ranks of rebeldom 
aye, sir, you may take all the officers of your regular army, who have deserted 
by hundreds and violated their oath, and gone into the ranks of the enemy, 
and are fighting to overturn the government ; go and poll the whole of themi 
and you cannot find one that ever co-operated with me politically. They are 
all Democrats, every man. Yes, sir, and go among the officers of the navy 
who have deserted and gone over to the enemy, and are now fighting against 
their flag and attempting to overturn this government ; poll them, and among 
all the hundreds of them you cannot find a single Republican -not one. Not 
sir, they are all Democrats, every man. You may go and poll the whole four 
or five hundred thousand men the rebels have now in arms against this gov- 
ernment, and you cannot find a man who was ever a Republican or who 
even sympathized with the Republicans. They are all Democrats or '-Union 
men" such as we had here two years ago, men who had professed to be for 
the Union wlien their hearts were with the enemies of the government. Sir, 
go among the Northern sympathizers with the rebellion, the men who are 
proclaiming to-day that this government is overturned, and that it will never 
be restored, Avho are to-day denouncing your currency and saying that your 
money is not worth the paper upon which it is written; search through 
all the sympathizers with this rebellion, and you cannot find a man who 
ever co-operated with me politically — not one. They are Democrats, but yet, 
forsooth, I am responsible for this war, ... 1 Jiave no responsibility for 
this rebellion, nor have the party with which I act. We liave with perfect 
unanimity, in every instance, come up to the support of the government. 
When the government demanded 400,000 men, every single individual on this 
side of the house voted to give them 500,000 men. And when they demanded 
$400,000,000 to support the government, every man on this side of the house 
voted to give them $.jOO,000,000 to save the nation. Sir, we have been ready 
under all circumstances to make any and every sacrifice so that this nation 
might be saved. Our armies are in large force and ably commanded ; tliey 
are ready to advance and crush the h}'dra- headed monster of rebellion. Aye, 
sir, ))ut we have an cucmy insidious and dangerous. The seat of the rebellion is 
lo-day not in Richmond, it is among the cop[)er • headed traitors of the North, 
and if this government is overlurned. if we shouicl fail in saving tlie govern- 
ment, it will ],c, not from ti;e f.jice of rebels in our front, but because of the 
accursed traitors in our rear. 



196 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

In the course of a debate in tlie Senate on Feb. IG, 1866, 
upon reconstruction topics, Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana said: 

Wlien the good and the patriotic, North and South, representing the 
yearning hearts of the people at home, came here in the winter and spring of 
ISGl, in a peace congress, if possible to avoid this dreadful war, then the 
Senator from Michigan announced to his Governor and tlie country that this 
Union was scarcely worth preserving without some blood - letting. His cry 
before the war was for blood. Allow me to say that when the Senator's name 
is forgotten liecause of anything he says or does in this body, in future times 
it will be borne down upon the pages of history as the author of tlu! terrible 
sentiment that the Union of the people that our fathers had cemented by the 
blood of the Revolution and by the love of the people ; that that Union, rest- 
ing upon compromise and concession, resting upon the doctrine of equality to 
all sections of the country ; that that Union which brought us so much great- 
ness and power in the three-quarters of a century of our life ; that that 
Union which had brought us so much prosperity and greatness until we were 
the mightiest and proudest nation on God's footstool ; that that grand Union 
was not worth preserving unless we had some blood-letting. Mr. President, 
it is not the sentiment of the Senator's own heart ; it is the expression of a 
bitter political hostility ; but it will carry him down to immortality ; he is sure 
of living in history ; he has gained that much by it. 

To this Mr. Chandler's i-esponse was instant. He said : 

The Senator from Indiana has arraigned me upon an old indictment for 
having written a certain letter in 1861. It is not the first time I have been 
arraigned on that indictment of "blood-letting." I was arraigned for it upon 
this floor by the traitor John C. Breckenridge, and I answered the traitor 
John C. Breckenridge, and after I gave him his answer he went out to the 
rebel ranks and fought against our flag. I was arraigned by another Senator 
from Kentucky, and by other traitors upon this floor ; I expect to be arraigned 
again. I wrote the letter, and I stand by the letter and what is in it. What 
was the position of the country when the letter was written ? The Democratic 
party as an organization had arrayed itself against this government — a Demo- 
cratic traitor in the Presidential chair, and Democratic traitors in every 
department of this government, Democratic traitors preaching treason upon this 
floor and preaching treason in the hall of the other House, Democratic traitors 
in your army and in your navy, Democratic traitors controlling every branch 
of this government. Your flag was fired upon and there was no response. 
The Democratic party had ordained that this government should be over- 
thrown, and I, a Senator from the State of Michigan, wrote to the Governor 
of that State "unless you are prepared to shed blood for the preservation of 
this great government the government is overthrown." That is all there was 
in that letter. That I said, and that I .say again. And I tell that Senator, if 



FACING TREASON. 19V 

be is prepared to go down in history with the Democratic traitors who then 
co-operated with him, I am prepared to go down on that "blood-letting" 
letter, and I stand by the record as made. 

Because I wrote to the Governor of my State that unless he was prepared 
to shed blood lor the preservation of this government it was overthrown, now 
I am to be arraigned as going down to be remembered in history ! Yes, sir, 
I shall be remembered, and I am proud of the record. May it stand, and 
stand as long as this government stands ! When that Senator and the men 
who co-operated with him shall have gone down to eternal infamy my record 
will be brilliant. 

Ill the closing session of Mr. Chandler's Congressional service 
Senator Beiijaiiiin H. Hill of Georgia, in the course of a reply 
(on May 10, 1879) to a declaration of his on the previous day 
that "there were twelve Senators on the other side whose seats 
were obtained and are held by fraud and violence," again read 
and commented upon "the blood letter." Mr. Chandler promptly 
answered as follows : 

Mr. Pi-esident, this is the fourth time since 1861 that allusion has been 
matle to a letter written by me to the Governor of the State of Michigan ; 
first it appeared in a newspaper published in Detroit ; a copy was sent to me 
and a copy was likewise sent to the late Senator Powell. The letter was a 
private note written to the Governor and no copy retained. Senator Powell 
approached me with his copy of the letter and asked if it was correct. I told 
him I did not know ; I had written to the Governor of Michigan a private 
note and had kept no copy and could not say whether this was correct or 
not He told me that if it was a correct copy he would wish to make use of 
it, and if it was not he did not propose to make use of it. I said, "Sir, I 
will adopt it, and you may make any use of it you please." So to-day that 
is my letter. If not originally written by me, it is mine by adoption. 

And, Mr. President, what were the circumstances under which that letter 
was written '? I had been in this body then nearly four years listening to 
treason day by day and hour by hour. The threat, the universal threat daily, 
hourly, was, "Do this or we will di-ssolve the Union ; if you do not do that 
we will dissolve the Union." Treason was in the White House, treason in 
the Cabinet, treason in the Senate, and treason in the House of Representa- 
tives ; bold, outspoken, rampant treason was daily and hourly uttered. The 
threat was made upon this tloor in my presence by a Senator, " You may 
" give us a blank sheet of paper and let us fill it up as we please, and then 
"we will not live with you." And another Senator stood here beside that 
Senator from Texas and said, "I stand by the Senator from Texas." Treason 
was applauded in the galleries of this body, and treason was talked on the 



198 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 



streets, in the street oars, in private circles; evernvijerc it was treason — 
treason in your departments, traitors in tlie White House, traitors around 
these galleries, traitors everywhere ! 

The flag of rebellion hatl been raised ; the Union was already dissolved, 
we were told ; the rebel government was already established with its capital 
in Alabama; "and now we will negotiate with you," was said to us. Upon 
what basis would you negotiate V Upon what basis did you call your peace 
convention ? With rampant rebellion staring us in the face ! Sir, it was no 
time to negotiate. The time for negotiation was past. 

Sir, this was the condition of affairs when that letter was written ; and 
after Mr. Powell had made his assault upon me in this body for it I responded, 
relating what I have related here now with regard to it, and I said, "I stand 
by that letter," and I stand by it now. What was there in it then, and what 
is there in it now ? The Slate of Michigan was known to be in favor of the 
constitution and the Union and the enforcement of the laws, even to the let- 
ting of blood if need be, and that was all there was and all there is in that 
letter. Make the most of it ! 

The Senator from Georgia says that I did not shed any blood. How 
much blood did he shed?* [Laughter.] Will somebody inform us the exact 
quantity of blood that the Senator from Georgia shed ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia : The difference between us is that I was not in 
favor of shedding anybody's blood. 

Mr. Ch.vndler : Nor I, except to punish treason and traitors. Sir, the 
Senator is not the man to stand up on this floor and talk about other men 
saving their own blood. He took good care to put his blood in Fort Lafayette 
where he was out of the way of rebel bullets as well as Union bullets. He is 
the last man to stand up here and talk to ine about letting the blood of others 
be shed. 

Mr. President, I was then, as I am now, in favor of the government of 
the United States. Then, as now, I abhorred the idea of State sovereignty over 
National sovereignty. Then, as now, I Avas prepared even to shed blood to 
save this glorious government. Then, as now, I stood up for the constitution 
and the Union. Then, as now, I was in favor of the perpetuitj' of this 
glorious government. But the Senator from Georgia, was, as he testified 
before a committee, "a Union secessionist." I have the testimony here before 
mc. Will somebody explain what that means — "a Union secessionist?" Mr. 
President, I should like to sec the dictionary wherein a definition can lie found 
of "a Union secessionist!" I do not understand the term. He saj's they 
have the right to have a solid South, but a solid North will destroy the 
government. Why, Mr. President, the South is no more solid to day than it 
was in 1857. ... It has been solid ever since, and it was no quarrel with 



•An allu'<ion to the common report that, during a secret session of the Confederate 
Senate, Wilham L. Yancey received injuries in a personal encounter with li. H. Hill from 
which he finally died. 



FACING TREASON. 199 

the North that made it solid. It was solid because it was determined either 
to "rule or ruin" this nation. It tried the "ruin" scheme with arms; and 
now, having failed to ruin this government with arms, it comes back to ruin 
it by withholding supplies to carry on the government. Sir, the men have 
changed since 1857. Tliere is now but one member on this floor who stood 
here with me on the 4th of March, 1857. The men have changed, the meas- 
ures not at all. You then fought for the overthrow of this government, and 
now you vote and talk for the same purpose. You are to-day, as you were 
then, determined either to rule or ruin this government, and you cannot do 
either. 

This letter was also for years constantly quoted and denonncec 
by the Democratic press of Micliigan with the liope of by this 
means breaking the Senator's hold upon the confidence of the 
people of his State. He uniformly met these attacks, not only 
without the shadow of apology, but with the most emphatic 
defiance. On the stump he repeatedly declared that " that letter 
was a good one," that he would not cpialify a sentence nor 
retract a word of it, that he "stood by it" without reservation, 
and that he believed when he wrote it and knew afterward that 
it pointed out the only path in which the nation could then 
walk with honor and with safety. Time has shown that Mr. 
Chandler was right and that the men who deprecated his bold- 
ness were wrong, and that the real statesmanship of the winter 
of 1860-61 was that which proposed not to parley with, but to 
draw the sword upon, "foul treason." The paper which at that 
time first printed "the blood letter" and made it the text for 
unsparmg and constant denunciation of its author was edited by a 
man who grew to be one of the foremost of American journalists, 
and — always hostile to RepubHcanism — published in 1879 the 
chief Northwestern organ ot Independent opinion, which said, in 
announcing Mr. Chandler's sudden death in its city : " To 
" superior iiitcllec.tiial endowments he united a force of will and 
'' resolution of purpose that hesitated at no obstacle. Few men 
"ever displayed in a more lemaikablc degree the courage of 
" opinions No dread of unpopularity, no fear of consequences, 



200 ZACHAHIAII CHANDLElt. 

"ever troubk'd him. His fanious ' blood - letting letter,' written 
'' near the opening of the Southern rebellion, was a faithful 
" manifestation of the man. When frightened party chiefs of 
" the North were running up and down Mith peace propositions 
" to placate Southern iire - eaters and patch up a new truce 
" between free civilization and slave barbarism, Zach. Chandler 
" stood up in his place in the Senate and in terms of intense, 
" bitter scorn, denounced all such eiforts as the pitiful manifesta- 
" cions of political cowardice and folly. He had no word of 
" regret to utter upon the departure of the Southern Senators ; 
" but told them that the North would whip them back, and that 
" in their humiliation the bond of nationality would be strength- 
" ened. He had no dread of the threatened blood - letting, but 
" believed it to be the only way of curing the Southern idcer, 
" and that the nation would afterward be the healthier for it." 
And 

"Thus the whirligiif of Time briuf^s iu his rcvouges." 




CHAPTEK XII. 

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAK. 

^^BRAHAM LINCOLN" reached Washington on the 23d 
of February, 1861, liaving come from Harrisburg incog- 
nito, and in advance of the announced time, because of 
threats of assassination. Mr. Chandler was one of the 
first persons informed of his arrival, called upon him at once, 
and was in frequent consultation with him thereafter with refer- 
ence to the formation of his Cabinet and the policy to be 
pursued toward the South. Mr. Chandler earnestly opposed 
placing any but the most uncompromising Union men at the 
head of the departments, urged bold and decisive measures 
toward armed traitors for the sake of the moral effect of such a 
course, and advised the most emphatic declarations in the inaugu- 
ral of the President's intention to enforce the laws at all hazards. 
Mr. Lincoln had seriously thought of inviting two gentlemen 
from the Southern States to seats in his Cabinet, the names 
chiefly considered by him being those of Alexander H. Stephens 
of Georgia, and James Guthrie of Kentucky. Mr. Chandler 
strongly opposed any such concession to the rampant disunionism 
of the slave States, and the hostility of the wing of the party 
with which he acted finally led Mr. Lincoln to abandon his 
original plan and select Edward Bates of Missouri and Mont- 
gomery Blair as the Southern members of the Cabinet. Mr. 
Chandler also advised that Breckenridge, Wigfall, and other 
avowedly disloyal Congressmen should be arrested at once, and 
urged that the " Secession Commissioners," when they came to 
Washington, should be dealt with summarily as traitors and not be 
permitted to even informally negotiate with the Administration. 



2(»2 ZACIIAIUAII ClIAMDLEU. 

He always believed that this suinmaiy treatment of rebeliioii at 
the outset would have greatly curtailed its dimensions, but the 
President was guided by Mr. Seward and others, whose counsels 
were- different and who hoped to prevent the inii)ending war by 
mildness. Accordingly the inaugural was almost apologetic in 
tone toward the South ; throughout March, men like Stephen 
A. Douglas inquired whether the Administration meant peace or 
war; flagrant treason was still defiantly uttered on the floor of 
Congress, and Jolin Forsyth and J\[. J. Crawford, embassadors 
from the "• Confederacy," spent weeks in Washington holding 
relations with the new Secretary of State which, if not " official," 
looked like a concession in fact of the practical independence of 
the seceded States. The first official favor Mr. Chandler asked 
from President Lincohi was the appointment ot his life -long 
friend, James M. Edmunds, as Commissioner of the General 
Land Office, and Mr. Edmunds was promptly nominated to that 
position and confirmed by the Senate. 

At noon on March 4, ISBl, Vice-President Ilamlin took the 
chair of the Senate and directed the secretary to read this procla- 
mation convening an extra session of that body: 

BY THE PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES : 

A PROCLAMATION. 

WnEREAS, Objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate 
should be convened at twelve o'clock on the 4th of ]\Iarch next, to receive 
and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the 
Executive: Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States, 
have considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, declaring 
that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to 
convene for the transaction of business, at the capitol in the city of Wash- 
ington, on the 4th day of March next, at twelve o'clock at noon on that day, 
of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that 
body are hereby required to take notice. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the I'nitcd States at "Washington, 

the 11 til day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
[l. B.] eight hundred and sixty -one, and of the independence of the United 

States of America the eighty fifth. JAMES BUCHANAN. 

By the President ; J. S. Black, Secretary of State. 



REBELLION 1 2U3 

Sixteen new Senators then took the oath of office, and at 
fifteen minutes past one o'clock James Bnchanan and Abraham 
Lincohi entered the Senate chamber, arm in arm, accompanied 
by Senators Foote, Baker and Pearce, members of the Com- 
mittee of Arraii*>-ements, and were conducted to seats in front 
of the secretary's desk. In a few moments afterward, those 
assembled in the Senate chamber proceeded to the platform on 
the central portico of the eastern front of the capitol, to listen 
to the inaugural address of the President elect. Then the oath 
of office was administered to him by the Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court, and the administration of the government by 
the Republican party had commenced. The business of this 
extra session of the Senate was chiefly limited to the confirma- 
tion of executive appointments, although there were some exciting 
discussions upon the political situation. Mr. Chandler, on taking 
possession (as the new chairman) of the room of the Committee 
on Commerce, had his righteous wrath at the men who had 
availed themselves of their official positions to plot treason against 
the government still further stimulated by finding in one of the 
dra\\ci-.s of the large committee table the original di-aft of the 
secession ordinance of Alabama, which had been prepared in the 
national capitol by Senator Clement C. Clay, his predecessor in 
the chairmanship of the committee.* This illustration of South- 
ern perfidy Mr. Chandler carefully kept, and at his death it was 
among his private papers. The executive session of the Senate 
closed on March 28, 1861, and Mr. Chandler at once returned to 
Detroit. 

At 5.20 A. M. on April 12, 18(U, a mortar in the rebel bat- 
tery on Sullivan's Island in the harbor of Charleston fired a 

*Mr. Clay ( C. C. Clay, Jr.. of Alabama), chairman of the Committee on Commerce, 
drew up in the room of that committee the original ordinance of secession for the State of 
Alabama, while he, a rebel traitor, was drawing the pay of this government. It was drawn 
upon government paper, written with government ink, and copied by a clerk drawing $6 
a day from this government. I found it in that room and 1 have it now.— Zachariah. 
Chandler in the Senate, April 12, 186k. 



2'>4 ZACILVRIAH CHANDLER. 

sliell into Fort Sumter. This was tlie announeeincnt to the 

world of the decision of the rebels to delay no Ioniser, but to at 

once 

"ope 
"The purple testament of bleeding war." 

On the 13th Major Anderson abandoned tlie unequal contest, 
.•iiid surrendered the blazing ruins of his fortress to Beauregard ; 
on the 14th his garrison marched out with the honors of war; 
and on the 15th Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, a 
force which it was believed would trample out rebellion in 
ninety days. The North answered Charleston's cannon and the 
President's appeal with a magnificent assertion of its latent 
patriotism, and the war spirit flamed up in every State. On April 
17 the business men of Detroit held a public meeting at the 
invitation of its Board of Trade, at which the firm purpose to 
support the government in its contest w^ith treason was emphat- 
ically declared, and all needed assistance in troops and money 
was pledged. Senator Chandler escorted General Cass to this 
gathering, and their entrance, arm in arm, typifying as it did the 
solidification of the Union sentiment of the North, was followed 
by long -continued cheering. Both gentlemen spoke in tones of 
earnest loyalty and amid constant applause. That night the 
following letter was mailed to Washington : 

Detroit, April 17, 18G1. 
Hon. Simon Cnnurov. 

Deau Sik : One of the most distinguished Democrats in this country* 
says : " Don't defend Washington. Don't put batteries on Georgetown Heights, 
but shove your troops directly into Virginia, and quarter them there." 

Stand by the Union men in Virginia and you will find i>lenty of them. 

By this bold policy you will save Virginia to the Union as well as the 
ether border States. 

There is but one sentiment here. We will give j'ou all the troops you 
can use. We will send you two regiments in thirty days, and "jO.OOO in thirty 
days more if you want them. General Cass subscribed $:J,000 to equip the 
regiments. 

♦This undoubtedly refers to Lewis Ca.s8. 



REBELLION ! 205 

There are no sympathizers here with treason, and if there were we would 
dispense with their company forthwith. Your friend, Z. CHANDLER. 

Michigan justified lier Senator's pledges bj promptly raising 
and equipping many more troops than the State was required to 
furnish under the call for 75,000 volunteers, and this correspond- 
ence soon followed: 

Detroit, April 21, 186L 
Hon. Simon Uameron. 

My Dear Cameron: ... I will esteem it a very great favor if you 
will officially call for at least one more regiment to go to the front immedi- 
ately from this State. You did not call for but one, but we have got two 
all ready, and have raised $100,000 by private subscription to equip them. 
Truly yours, Z. CHANDLER. 

[reply.] 

Washington, April 29, 18G1. 
Hon. Z. Chandler. 

Dear Sir : ... It would give me great pleasure to gratify your 
wishes, but this can only be done in one way. The President has determined 
to accept no more for three months' service, but to add to the regular army 
twenty -five more regiments whose members shall agree to serve two years 
unless sooner discharged. This will enable the Department to accept another 
regiment from your State. Truly yours, 

SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War. 

To this suggestion the response was prompt, and the enlist- 
ment of men and formation of companies for three years' service 
went briskly on, Michigan sending only one three -months' regi- 
ment to the field. Mr. Chandler was active in stimulating and 
organizing the war movements at home, both by untiring per- 
sonal labor and by liberal subscriptions of money, until the first 
regiments were ready for marching orders. He was one of 
the speakers at an imposing Union meeting held in Detroit on 
April 25, with Lewis Cass in the chair, and he there said : '' A 
" greater contest than the Revolutionary war is now about to 
" take place. It is to be tested whether a republican government 
" can stand or not. The eyes of all Europe are upon us, and we 
" will convince them that ours is the strongest government on 



2U6 ZACIIARIAII (HANDLER. 

"earth." He also made an earnest, and in tlie end snccessful, 
effort to procure fruui the War Department such orders as should 
obtain for the Michigan men an oi)portnnity for prompt service 
against the enemy. It was originally intended to send the regi- 
ments from his State to Cairo, but his intinence accomplished a 
change in this plan and they were directed to report to Wash- 
ington for immediate duty. In May Mr. Chandler went to the 
capital to aid in preparing for their reception and to nrge upon 
the authorities, who were then declining the profuse offers of 
troops, the importance of accepting all the regnnents tendered 
by his own and other States and ot promptly attacking the con- 
stantly growmg rebellion by invading its territory and interfering 
with the organization of its armies. On the ITtli of May, 1861, 
the First Kegiment of Michigan Yolunteers arrived in Washing- 
ton, Col. O. B. Willcox commanding. They were met at the 
depot by Senator Chandler and escorted to quarters he had aided 
in securing for them in a business block on Pennsylvania avenue. 
Mr. Chandler was active in providing for their comfort, purchased 
supplies for them out of his own private purse, was present at 
their parade when they were formally mustered into the service 
of the United States by Adjutant -General Thomas, and asked 
the Secretary of War to send them at once to the front for 
active duty. His request was complied with and this regiment 
was prominent in the first important military movement of the 
war. 

After he had seen the Michigan troops well cared for, Mr. 
Chandler, on the 19th of May, in company with Senators Wade 
and Morrill and John G. Nicolay, the private secretary of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, sailed for Fortress Monroe to visit General Butler, 
and see the condition of his newly -organized army. On the 
following day the party started to return on the steamer Free- 
born, and a«; they were passing through Hampton Roads heard 
heavy cannonading, which proved to be an artillery duel between 



REBELLION 1 207 

the steamer Monticello and a battery erected by the rebels at 
SewelFs Point, where the Elizabeth river empties into Hampton 
Roads. The Freeborn went at once to the assistance of the 
Monticello, and being of light draft approached within 300 
yards of the battery and opened tire with her guns. The cohim- 
biads of the Viiginians were soon disabled, and the rebels were 
scattered in every direction, Mr. Chandler pronouncing the spec- 
tacle "the best ball -playing he had ever seen." On her voyage 
up the Potomac the Freeborn seized two suspicious boats, and 
found them loaded with a company of fifty rebel soldiers on 
their way to join " the Confederate army." Both vessels were 
brought to the jN'av^y Yard at Washington and they we^-e the 
first prizes taken during the war, and the men on board were 
the first rebel prisoners captured. 

On the night of the 23d of May, the Union forces at Wash- 
ington crossed the Potomac and proceeded to seize and fortify 
advantageous positions on Virginia soil. The First Michigan 
accompanied the famous Zouave regiment by ferry-boats to 
Alexandria, taking possession of that city in the night. Mr. 
Chandler went with the Michigan men, and was the only civilian 
who was allowed to accompany this wing of the expedition. He 
was with a detachment of soldiers who surprised and captured a 
party of forty rebel dragoons, including four officers, and he was 
in Alexandria when Colonel Ellsworth fell and private Brownell 
instantly avenged his death. Of this event, since obscured by 
four years of carnage, but which then first brought to excited 
millions some sense of the dreadful realities of war, he was the 
first to bear the news to the authorities at Washington. 

Mr. Chandler remained at the capital some weeks, working 
industriously in helping on the preparations for war, and urging 
the most vigorous and sweeping measures upon the Adminis- 
tration. He believed and said repeatedly that the call for 
75,000 men for three months was a mistake. He was no q3ti- 



2U8 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

mist, and never tlioupjlit that a rebellion, so carefully organized 
and left so long undisturbed, could be subdued without a 
desperate and bloody struggle. He thought that 500,000 rather 
than 75,000 volunteers sliould have been called for to serve 
through the war, and judged that the effect of such a piocla- 
nuition ui)()n the couutry, and particularly upon the South, 
would have been salutary, as showing the determmatiou of 
the government to crush the rebellion at once and forever. 
While the raw levies of volunteers were massing in Washington 
in May and June, there was a lamentable lack of discipline and 
organization. The commissary department of the army was 
feeble and inefficient, and there was a want of proper and suffi- 
cient food for the soldiers. Mr. Chandler's executive capacity 
was very useful then to the Secretary of War m assisting in 
the organization of a commissariat and in procuring bupplies and 
equipments, and he spent no small sum in obtaining food for 
the soldiers when the regular rations were not forthcoming. 
Although entirely M'ithout military training, Mr Chandler''o busi- 
ness experience, his quick perception, and his clear judgment 
made his services at this period of confusion and mismanagement 
of great value to the country. In June he returned to Michigan 
for a few days, and on the 21st of that month spoke ( with the 
Hon. Charles M. Croswell) at Adrian, on the occasion of the 
presentation by the ladies of that city of a stand of colors to a 
volunteer regiment in camp there. 

On the 4th of July, ISfil, the Thirty - seventh Congress met 
in extra session, and adjourned on the Gth of August, after 
having enacted laws to increase the army and navy, and to 
provide the means and authority necessary for the \igorous prose 
cution of the war. The scope of the work undertaken by this 
Congress was far greater than that of any preceding session. 
Many of the members had Init little experience in legislative 
matters, but their patriotism was sincere and ardent, and their 



REBELLION 1 209 

acts embodied the national purpose to maintain the integrity of 
the repubhc at any cost. On the second day of the session Mr. 
Chandler said in the Senate: 

I desire to give notice tliat I sliall to-morrow or on some subsequent day 
introduce a bill to confiscate the property of all Governors of States, members 
of the Legislature, Judges of Courts, and ali military officers above the rank 
of lieutenant who shall take up arms against the United States, or aid or abet 
treason against the government of the United States, and that said individual 
shall be forever disqualified from holding any office of honor, emolument or 
trust under this government. 

This bill was introduced on July 15, and was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary ; it reported back a measure of 

much narrower scope, which was passed, and is known as the 

confiscation act of 1861. The origin of Mr. Chandler's bill was 

the fact that John Y. Mason of Virginia, who had been expelled 

from the Senate for treason, owned a large amount of property 

in Pennsylvania, and so indignant were the people of the county 

in which it was located at his treachery, that a guard was kept 

over it constantly to prevent its destruction by a mob. Mr. 

Chandler believed it was imj)ortant that the government should 

be enabled to legally seize for its own use such property as this ; 

there were also many officers of the army and navy who were 

undecided whether to go with the rebellion or remain at their 

posts. lie wished to add to the penalties of treason to aifect 

them, as well as those wealthy citizens of Washington and 

Maryland who had formerly been in office and who sympathized 

with the rebellion and gave the South as niucli encouragement 

as they dared. His proposition proved then too vigorous to 

obtain the endorsement of his colleagues, but within a year its 

principle received Congressional sanction. During this session 

(on July IS) Mr. Chandler said in the Senate with characteristic 

force : 

The Senator from Indiana says there are three parties in the country. I 
deny it, sir. There are but two parties, patriots and traitors — none others in 
14 



210 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

this bodj' nor iu the country. I care not what proposition may be brought 
up to save the Union, to preserve its integrity, patriots will vote for it ; and 
I care not wnat proposition you may bring up to dissolve the Union, to break 
up this government, traitors will vote for tluit. And those are the only two 
parties there are in the Senate or the country. 

It is not necessary to add that Mr. Chandler voted at this 
session for every measure to organize armies and to raise means 
for their maintenance, and that lie favored at all times vigorous 
and summary measures in dealing with the enemies of the 
republic. 

General McDowell's "invasion of Virginia" on May 23 was 
followed by several weeks of military inactivity on the Potomac, 
broken only by a dash of the Union cavalry into Fairfax Court- 
house and the skirmish at Vienna, where a regiment of Ohio 
troops, who were backed on a railroad train into a rebel ambus- 
cade, lost twenty men. On July 1<) the Union army began a 
forward movement against the rebels who were found in jjosition 
about and along a creek known as Bull Run. After a short and 
indecisive engagement on that day, General McDowell commenced 
to concentrate his forces for an attack on Beauregard's line, but 
various delays prevented any delinite movement until Sunday, 
July 21. On that date was fought the battle of Bull Run, 
ending in a complete Union defeat, attended by severe losses 
and a panic-stricken retreat by many regiments, and followed 
by great national dismay and alarm. An incpiiry into the 
blundering strategy, political half - heartedness, and poor general- 
ship, which were the causes of this unnecessary and most serious 
reverse, are foreign to the purpose of this work. Mr. Chandler 
was one of a large number of members of Congress who joined 
the army on the eve of battle, and watched its progress to the 
final disaster. The First Michigan was among the regiments 
engaged in the thickest of the fight, and the Second and Third 
were in the brigade of Gen. I. B. Richardson, which acted as a 
rear -guard in the retreat of the army and prevented defeat from 



REBELLION ! 211 

becoming a total rout. Mr. Cliaudler himself aided in halting 
and rallying the panic-stricken fugitives,* and reached Washing- 
ton late at night, covered with mud and wearied with travel 
and hunger. He drove at once to the White House, where he 
found Mr. Lincoln despondent, exhausted with his labors, and 
greatly depressed by the defeat and the loss of life involved. 
Mr. Chandler urged upon the President the necessity of vigorous 
measures, the wisdom of calling for more troops, and the cer- 
tainty that th3 North wo i! 1 follow the Administration in meeting 
a reverse with undismayed and redoubled energies. He asked 
Mr. Lincoln to issue an order for the enrolling of 500,000 
men at once, "to show to the country and the rebels that the 
" government was not discouraged a whit, but was just beginning 
"to get mad." Mr. Chandler's vitality, the timely vigor of his 
bold words, and his overwlielming earnestness acted as a tonic 
upon the over -burdened Executive, and he left Mr. Lincoln 
cheered, encouraged and resolute. The governors of the loyal 
States were at once appeale 1 to for more troops, and the answer 
of the North to Bull Run was the rush of tens of thousands of 
men into camp and the organization of great armies along the 
Potomac, the Ohio and the Mississip )". Secretary Stanton, who 
knew of this midnight interview, estimated its effect ujwn the 
course of events as of the utmost importance, and repeatedly 
said that Mr. Chandlers oj^portunely - manifested courage and 
vigor then saved the Union from a great peril. 

In the task of re - organizing the army after Bull Run, of 
clearing Washington of fugitives, and of extracting order from 

♦Whatever credit there was in stopping the rout (at this point) is due wholly to 
Seaa*ors Chandler and Wade, and Representatives Blake, Riddle, and Morris. These gentle- 
men, armed with Mayiiard rifles and navy revolvers, sprang from their carriages some three 
miles this side of Oentreville, and, presenting their weapons, in loud voices commanded the 
fugitives to halt and turn back. Their bold and determined manner brought most at that 
point to a stand still. Many on horseback, who attempted to dash by them, had their 
horses seized by the bits. Some of the fugitives who were armed menaced these gentle- 
men. None, however, were permitted to pass until the arrival of the Second New Jersey 
Regiment, on its way to the battle-ground, turned back the flying soldiers and teamsters.— 
Washington Intelligencer, July 23, 1861. 



212 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

cluios, Mr. Chandler rendered important aid to tlie authorities, 
nnd after the adjouniiuent returned to Michigan and tln-ew his 
strong energies into the worlc of raising and equipping troops. 
This letter (which was not followed by any practical results, 
owing to various causes) is of interest as siiowing the spirit of 

those days: 

Detuoit, Aug. 27, 1861. 
Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. 

My Dear Camekon : A Colonel Elliott, member of the Canadian Parlia- 
ment, is desirous of raising a regiment of Canadian cavalry for the war against 
treason. I don't know how the Administration may look upon this proposi- 
tion, but there are many reasons in favor of its acceptance. 

1. Colonel Elliott is a brave and experienced officer. 

2. He is in favor of the closest union between the Canadas and the 
United States, and believes that this fraternal union upon the battle - field would 
tend strongly to cement a yet closer connection. 

3. It would satisfy England that hands -off was her best policy. 

The moment it is proven that black men are used in the Southern army 
against ris, I propose to recruit a few regiments of negroes in Canada myself to 
meet that enemy, and I think this would be an opening wedge for the move- 
ment of emancipation. 

^Iv colleague will introduce Colonel Elliott to you and explain more at 
length^ Truly, your friend, Z. CHANDLER. 

To this same period also belongs this characteristic defense of 
his State and the Northwest against what Mr. Chandler believed 
— and with reason — to be an unjust statement: 

To (he Editor of (he Netv York World : 

My attention has been called to an article in your valuable and patriotic 
paper in which you say: "The extreme Northern States, from Maine to j\Iich- 
" igan, have not done their duty, and it is high time that State pride aroused 
"them to emulate the noble example of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode 
" Island." As I am sure you would not willingly do injustice to Michigan, I 
ask you to state editorially, the population and the number of regiments in 
tiic field for the war from each of the States whose example is to be emu- 
lated. Michigan had at Bull Run one three - months' regiment (now recruiting 
and in for the war) and three regiments for the war, and not a private soldier 
in camp in (he State. Since that time she has sent seven regiments for the 
war, making ten regiments now present in the army, in addition to which 
ti'ie furnished to other Slates over 2,000 men, now in (he field, for the reason 
that the government would accept no more men from Micliigan at that time, 



REBELLION ! '213 



and the patriotic ardor of our citizens could not be restrained. We have no-w- 
in camp nearly 4,000 men, and shall send two regiments this -week and two 
more within a few days. 

The Northwest has done her whole duty ; how is it with the East ? The 
Northwest has exceeded every call made upon her, and yet you lack men 
and are denuding over 2,000 miles of border territory of troops for the defense 
of Washington. If New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New 
England States cannot defend Washington, in God's name what can tliey do ? 
The Northwest will defend the lines from the mountains of Virginia to the 
Rocky Mountains. She will sweep secession and treason from the valley of 
the Mississippi, aye, and will defend the Potomac, too, if she must. But is not 
this Union worth as much to New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts as 
to the Northwest ? Why, then, so tardy in supplying troops ? Had five of 
the forty Northwestern regiments now on the Potomac been with Lyon he 
■would have won the battle and cleared Missouri ! Had five been with ]\Iulli- 
gan he would now be in possession of Lexington ! Could ten of them be 
sent into Kentucky to-morrow (in addition to what they have) they would 
clear the State of secession in ten days, and threaten Tennessee ! Could ten 
be sent to Rosecrans he would clear the mountains of Virginia and threaten 
the rear of the grand army! But, no; this cannot be done — because the 
East will not do her duty. If she does not at once, the whole world will 
cry shame. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Z. CHANDLER. 

Detroit, Sept. 30, 1861. 

During tlie Congressional recess he also sent this letter of 
characteristic suggestions to the Secretary of War: 

Detroit, Nov. 15, 1861. 
Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. 

My Dear Sir: The time for delivering a battle upon the Potomac has 
now passed, and something must and can be done. In 'my opinion the follow- 
ing plan is still feasible, and will close the war : 

Let Rosecrans be ordered immediately to Kentucky with his army of vet- 
eran Northwestern trcops. Substitute an equal or larger number of Eastern 
troops with an Eastern general, who will act strictly upon the defensive. Send 
your Northwestern troops now upon the- Potomac to Cairo at once. Send Pope 
(if he is the man) to Missouri with sufiicient arms to supply all the North- 
western regiments in readiness to march on the 1st day of December. Let an 
abundance of transports and material be provided at Cairo and St. Louis, by 
that date (December 1st). 

Give the order, "Forward," and then cut the wires. 

Stop all official communication with the Army of the Northwest. That 
army, if thus untrammeled, will spend New Year's day in New Orleans, via 
Memphis, and will reach Washington via Richmond by the 1st of May next. 



214 ZACIIAKIAH CHANDLER. 

In the meantime Sherman, Butler, and Burnside can take care of South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and North Carolina will fall of itself with 
Virgmia and the Gulf States. 

Is this plan feasible '? 

None but a traitor will say you Nay, for you and I know that 200,000 
Northwestt'rn soldiers, with Rosecrans's and Lyon's veterans, can and will go 
wherever they are ordered, and on time. 

As to your Army of the Potomac, select 100,000 men of your city regi- 
ments which look well on parade, and keep them for reviews. Send the 
balance to the Gulf States. We want none of them out West. 

We will, by recruiting during the winter, keep our Grand Army up to 
200,000 men, and furnish garrisons as fast as needed for captured towns. 
Very truly yours, Z. CHANDLER. 

Congress re -assembled for its regular session in December, 
1861, and Mr. Chandler was called upon (on Jan. 17, 1862) to 
present the credentials of the Hon. Jacob M. Howard as his 
colleague from Michigan, vice Kinsley S. Bingham, who had 
died suddenly in the preceding October. Mr. Howard remained 
a Senator for ten years, winning distinction in that position. 
Throughout his term his relations with his colleague were inti- 
mate and cordial, and the foremost merchant and the first lawyer 
of Michigan stood side by side in the Senate in the support of 
every important measure which had for its object tlie encourage- 
ment of loyal sentiment, or the strengthening of tlie military and 
financial arms of the government, or the prompt suppression of 
the rebellion. 




i 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAK. 

LTRING the Congressional recess of tlie autumn of 1861 
gross mismanagement led to the annihilation at Ball's 
Bluif of a brigade of Union troops, led by Senator 
Edward D. Baker of Oregon. They had been sent 
across the Potomac in flat-boats and skiffs, were left without 
adequate support, and, being surrounded by a vastly superior 
force of rebels, were driven to the edge of the river, and there 
either killed, wounded, captured, or driven into hiding places 
along the banks. Their commanding officer, who displayed 
throughout a high order of personal courage, was shot at the 
head of his line before the final rout. General Baker was a 
man of eloquence and many gallant qualities, and his death 
created a profound impression ; that he was sacrificed by military 
incapacity cannot be doubted. 

Congress met on Dec. 2, 1861, and on the first business day 
of the session Mr. Chandler offered a motion for the expulsion 
of John C. Breckenridge, who had at last joined the rebels, and 
it was unanimously adopted. On December 5 he introduced this 
resolution : 

Besolvid, That a committee of three be appointed to inquire into the disas- 
ters at Bull Run and Edward's Ferry (subsequently changed to Ball's Bluff), 
with power to send for persons and papers. 

Mr. Chandler said, in explanation of his motion, that these 
reverses had been attributed to politicians, to civilians, to every- 
thing but the right cause, and that it was due to the Senate 
and to the country that they should be investigated and that the 



216 ZACHAKIAII CHANDLP:R. 

blame should i-est where it belonged. After some discussion the 
Senate adopted the resolution with only three dissenting votes, 
first amending it by providing for a joint committee of both 
branches, and by enlarging the scope of its inquiries so as to 
include "the conduct of the war." The House concurred in the 
action, and the famous " Connnittee on the Conduct of the AVar" 
was thus created. On December 17, Mr. Chandler moved that 
the Vice-President should appoint the Senate members, addmg: 
" I do not know what the parliamentary usage mny be in a case 
" of this kind. If that usage would give me the position of 
"chairman, I wish to say that, under the circumstances, I do not 
" wish to accept it." Mr. Chandler had also privately requested 
Mr. Hamlin to appoint Senator Wade to the chairmanship, saying 
it was important that a lawyer should be given that place, and 
his desires were followed in both respects. The first committee, 
as announced at that time, consisted of the following Congress- 
men: On the part of the Senate, Benjamin F. Wade, Zachariah 
Chandler and Andrew Johnson; on the part of the House, 
Daniel W. Gooch of Massachusetts, John Covode of Pennsyl- 
vania, George W. Julian of Indiana, and Moses F. Odell of 
New York. Of the original committee, George W. Julian is 
the only one who survived Mr. Chandler. When Andrew John- 
son was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, ho resigned 
his position upon the committee, and Senator Joseph A. Wright 
of Indiana took his place. Mr. Wright served but a year, and 
after the expiration of his term the Senate branch of the com- 
mittee in the Thirty -seventh Congress consisted of only Mr. 
Chandler and Mr. Wade. William P>lair Lord, now one of the 
official reporters of the House of Pepresentatives, was appointed 
its clerk and stenographer. 

The tone of the Congressional discussion upon Mr. Chandler's 
proposition shows that this was regarded as an exceedingly 
important step, for the resolution clothed the committee with 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 



21' 



powers of very unusual magnitude, which, if abused, must have 
seriously embarrassed the Administration. Mr. Lincoln and Sec- 
retary Cameron, as well as General Scott and General McClellan, 
opposed its appointment at the outset, but Mr. Chandler took 
prompt and successful measures to assure the President that, if 




ZACHARIAH CHANDLER IN 1862. 

the plans of its projectors were carried out, the committee would 
be used only to strengthen the hands of the Executive, and 
promised that it should be made a help and not a hindrance to 
the vigorous prosecution of the war. On this point the Plon. 
James M. Edmunds, who was thoroughly informed as to the 
secret history of that period, has said : 

The writer knows that the Administration was not without fear that this 
was au unfriendly measure. A member of tlie Cabinet expressed such fears 



218 ZACHAKIAII CIIANDLP:!?. 

to him, and said that the President had not only expressed doubts as to the 
wisdom of the movement, but also fears that tlie eommittee niiglit, by 
unfriendly action, greatly embarrass the Executive. On being told by the 
writer that the measure was not so intended, but, on the contrary, that it was 
the intention of the mover to bring the conunittee to the aid of the Adminis- 
tration, he expressed much gratitication, and said it was of the utmost 
importance to bring such purpose to the knowledge of the President in some 
authoritative way, and at tlie earliest moment possible. This conversation was 
at once reported to Senator Chandler, whereupon both he and Senator Wade 
went immediately to the President and the Secretary of War, and assured 
them that it was their purpose to bring the whole power of the committee to 
the aid of tlie Executive. From this moment the most cordial relations existed 
between the committee and the Administration.* 

President Lincoln and Secretaries Cameron and Stanton ulti- 
mately placed great reliance upon the committee, and coni>tantly, 
tlironghout the war, it gave them the most valuable assistance. 
Mr. Wade and Mr. Chandler were deeper in the confidence of 
Secretary Stanton, from their connection with it, than were any 
other members of Congress, and differences of aim and opinion 
between them were exceedingly rare. 

Upon organizing for work the committee found itself con- 
fronted with an enormous task, inquiries into every phase of the 
organization and management of the Union armies being referred 
to it for consideration. " T^pon the conduct of the war,"' to cpiote 
from its own report, " depended the issue of the experiment 
" inaugurated by our fathers, after the expenditure of so much 
"blood and treasure — the establishment of a nation founded 
"upon the capacity of man for self-government. The nation 
" was engaged in a struggle for its existence ; a rebellion, 
" unparalleled in history, threatened the overthrow of our free 
" institutions, and the most prompt and vigorous measures were 
" demanded by every consideration of honor, -patriotism, and a 
" due regard for the prosperity and happiness of the people." 
And its sphere of duty was the constant watching of the details 



I 



In "The Republic" magazine of April, 187C. 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 



21! 



of movements, upon whose result depended such vast interests, as 
well as the safety of thousands of lives. The committee, in lay- 
ing out its work, followed the suggestion of Mr. Chandler, which 
was, first, to ol)tain such information in respect to, the conduct 
of the war as would best enable them to point out the mistakes 
which had been made in the past, and the course that promised 
to ensure the avoidance of their repetition; second, to collect 
such information as' the many and laborious duties of the Presi- 
dent and Secretary of War prevented them from obtaimng, and 
to lay it before them with those recommendations and sug- 
gestions which the circumstances seemed to demand. Working 
in such a field, the committee soon became a second Cabinet 
council, and its proceedings were constantly at the President's 
hand. Its sessions were nearly perpetual, and almost daily its 
members were in consultation with the President or the Secretary 
of War. Many of its transactions were never committed to 
paper, and, as the members were sworn to the strictest secrecy, 
will never be revealed. Secretary Stanton was frequently present 
while the committee was in session, and its door was always 
open to him. There was never any lack of harmony between 
him and its chief members, but, on the contrary, the utmost con- 
fidence was exchanged, and this committee was the right arm 
of the War Department in the darkest days of the rebellion. 
Repeatedly, after the examination of some important witness, 
did Mr. Chandler or Mr. Wade go at once to the White House 
with the ofiicial stenographer, when Mr. Stanton would be sent 
for and the stenographic notes of the evidence would be read to 
the President and Secretary of War for their information and 
guidance. From such conferences there sprang many important 
decisions, and the files and records of the committee were con- 
stantly referred to and relied upon as sources of exceedingly 
useful knowledge and hints both at the White House and at the 
War Department. 



220 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

Many subjects presented themselves for investigation, any 
one of which would, in ordinary times, have required the exclu- 
sive attention of a separate committee, and to follow out every 
line of inquiry suggested was manifestly a practical impossibility. 
Therefore the committee decided not to undertake any investiga- 
tions into what might be considered side issues, but to keep 
their attention directed entirely to the essential features of the 
war, so tliat they could ascertain and comprehend the necessi- 
ties of the armies and the causes of disaster or complaint, and 
the methods of supplying the one and remedying the other. 
Attempts were made repeatedly to use its power to punish enemies 
or to avenge private grievances, but its members adhered reso- 
lutely to the straightforward course originally marked out as the 
path of its duty. 

The first subject which the committee carefully inquired into 
was the defeat at Bull Kun. Many witnesses were examined, 
chiefly officers who were engaged in the battle — Generals Scott, 
McDowell, Meigs, Ileintzelman, Butterfield, Fitz-John Porter, 
and others. The testimony was very voluminous, but the com- 
mittee reached an early and unanimous opinion as to the causes 
of the disaster. Their report, written by Mr. Wade, said : " That 
" which now appears to have been the great error was the 
" failure to occupy Centreville and Manassas at the time Aiex- 
" andria was occupied, in May. The position at Manassas 
" controlled the raih-oad connections in all that section of the 
"country. . . . The next cause of disaster was the delay in 
'- l)roceeding against the enemy until the time of the three 
'' months' men was nearly expired. The enemy were allowed 
'• time to collect their forces and strengthen their position by 
" defensive works. . . . There had been but little time 
" devoted to disciplining the troops and instructing them, even 
'' in regiments ; hardly any instruction liad been given them m 
'M)ri<;ade movements, and none at all as divisions." General 



\ 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 221 

McDowell prepared a plan of campaign, which was approved by 
the Cabinet, and the 9th of July was fixed upon as the day for 
the advance ; but the movement did not commence until a week 
later than the appointed time. Transportation was deficient, and 
there was much delay resulting from lack of discipline among 
the troops, and when the battle came the Union forces were 
fatigued and not in good fighting condition, "But," said the 
report, "the principal cause of the defeat was the failure of 
" General Patterson to hold the troops of General Johnston in 
" the valley of the Shenandoah." Patterson had 23,000 men, 
while Johnston had but 12,000. Still, Patterson disobeyed the 
orders of General Scott, which were to make offensive dcTnon- 
strations against General Johnston so as to detain his army at 
Winchester, and if he retreated to follow him and keep up the 
fight. Those orders were repeated every day for more than a 
week in the telegraphic correspondence between Scott and Patter- 
son. Finally, General Scott heard of a large force moving from 
Patterson's front, and telegraphed, " Has not the enemy stolen a 
march on you?" To this Patterson replied, "The enemy has 
stolen no march upon me." while at that very time his large 
army was watching an empty camp and Johnston was far on his 
w^ay to reinforce the rebels at Manassas. Patterson did not dis- 
cover that Johnston had gone until he was miles distant, and 
the consequence was that McDowell had both . Beauregard and 
Johnston to fight, while Patterson, with 23,000 men, was lying 
idle in his camp. This is the substance of the report of the 
Committee on the Conduct of the War on the battle of Bull 
Run, and was the ofiicial announcement to the country of the 
inefficiency of the organization and generalship of the Army 
of the Potomac. 

But before the committee was organized the men who were 
responsible for this failure had been displaced, and General 
McClellan had been made the commander-in-chief. He had 



222 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER 

taken the reins of authority amid national acclamations, and was 
then at the lieiuiit of a remarkable popularity, which it is now 
known was adroitly stimulated for political purposes by the con- 
servativ^e press. But on the investigation into the second subject 
taken np by the connnittee (the disaster at Edward's Ferry or 
Ball's Bhiif) facts came to the knowledge of its members which 
created the suspicion in their minds that General Stone, wlio 
was charged with the blame of that defeat, and who, as the 
scape - goat, was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette, was 
not alone responsible for the calamity, but that the real fault 
would be found higher up. This suspicion they were never able 
to substantiate by absolute proof, and it was not expressed in 
any of their reports. 

The third topic taken up by the committee was the military 
management of the Western Department, under General Fremont. 
This was an inquiry of special importance, for the reason that 
that officer, ui)on taking command at St. Louis, issued a j^i-ocla- 
matiou declaring free all slaves whose masters were engaged in 
rebellion against the United States. This order caused a great 
excitement throughout the country, and the Republican party 
was widely divided in opinion as to its legality and propriety. 
President Lincoln was conservative on the question, and revoked 
the Fremont order, much to the disappointment of Mr. Chand- 
ler and the other more " advanced " Republicans. Hence the 
committee approached the subject with unusual interest, and, 
after a thorough investigation, made an elaborate rejiort. That 
part of this document wdiich relates to General Fremont's order 
in regard to slaves was signed by Messrs. Wade. Chandler, Julian, 
and Covode, and showed the ground on which these gentlemen 
then stood with regard to emanci])ation ; it was as follows: 

But tliiit feature of General Freinoul's adniiiiistratioii Avliieh attracted (lie 
most attention, and Avhieh w'lW ever 1)C most iirominent among the many 
points of interest connected with the history of that department, is his procla- 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 223 

mation of emancipation. Whatever opinion may be entertained with reference 
to the time when the policy of emancipation should be inaugurated, there can 
be no doubt that General Fremont at that early day rightly judged in regard 
to the most effective means of subduing this rebellion. In proof of that, it is 
only necessary to state that his successor, when transferred to another depart- 
ment, issued a proclamation embodying the same principle, and the President 
of the United States has since applied the same principle to all the rebellious 
States; and few will deny that it must be adhered to until the last vestige of 
treason and rebellion is destroyed. 

The committee heartily endorsed General Fremont's adminis- 
tration, declaring it to have been " eminently characterized by 
earnestness, ability, and the most nnqnestionable loyalty." They 
also examined into various minor military matters and move- 
ments, including, particularly, rebel barbarities and the return of 
slaves to their masters by the army. 

It was as a member of the Committee on the Conduct of 
the War in the Thirty - seventh Congress, and from the evidence 
taken in its inquiries, tliat Mr. Chandler obtained the mass of 
information which enabled him to make the most important of 
his war speeches, that of July 16, 1862, in which he exposed so 
conclusively General McClellan's utter incompetence. Ample as 
was the foundation of facts upon which rested this effective 
arraignment of conspicuous incapacity, the attack was one requir- 
ing genuine boldness, for it defiantly invited a storm of 
denunciation and, if it had failed of justification by the event, 
would have certainly ended its maker's political career, Not- 
withstanding his tardiness, his timidity, his inefficiency as a 
commander in the field, and his political sympathy with the 
more unpatriotic classes of the Northern people. General McClel- 
lan was still strong with the people and entrusted with great 
powers. The Democracy warmly commended his sentiments and 
methods, and labored incessantly to prevent any diminution of 
his hold upon the public confidence. The Army of the Potomac 
yet regarded him as "the young JSTapoleon," and its corps com- 
manders were, with but few exceptions, his personal adherents. 



224 ZACIIARIAII CIIAxNDLER. 

The long -suffering President was submitting with patience to 
his unjust coniphiints, after having labored incessantly to stim- 
ulate into activity his chronic sluggishness, fearful, with character- 
istic over - caution, lest his summary removal should divide the 
North and breed a dangerous disaffection in the face of the 
enemy among his troops. Many who did not believe in the 
sincerity or ability of the man also smothered their distrust, for 
fear that ci-iticism would only weaken the common cause and 
witli the Ik)])^ that even in his nerveless hands the mighty 
weapon of the national resources would at last fall — even if by 
its own weight only — on the enemy with decisive force. At 
this juncture, and under these circumstances, Mr. Chandler, with 
characteristic vigor of statement and plainness of speech, placed 
before the Senate and the country the demonstration of McClel- 
lan's imbecility. 

Originally Mr. Ciiandler believed that McClellan's selection 
as the practical successor of General Scott was a wise one, and 
hoped to see his organizing capacity in camp supplemented by 
enterprise and courage in the held. Distrust first sprang up with 
the persistent inaction of the Army of the Potomac throughout 
the last months of 1861, and it was strengthened by contact 
with the man himself and the study of his character and his 
plans. An illustration of how this change of opinion was brought 
about is given in an incident which occurred in the room of the 
Committee on the Conduct of the "War. That committee sent 
for General McClellan as soon as they took up matters relating 
to his command, in order to consult with him informally as to 
the situation. This was in January, 18G1, while he was in 
Washington "organizing" his army, and while there was no 
little impatience felt because he did not move. He was not 
formally summoned before the committee then, but simply called 
in for general consultation. After the regular business was 
finished, Mr. Chandler asked him bluntly why he did not attack 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 225 

the rebels. General McClellan replied tliat it was because there 
were not sufficient means of coniinuuicatiou with Washino-ton • 
he then called attention to the fact that there were only two 
bridges and no other means of transj^ortation across the Potomac. 

Mr. Chandler asked what the number of bridges had to do 
with an ad\^ance movement, and McClellan explained with mueli 
detail that it was one of the most important features of skillful 
strategy that a commander should have plenty of room to retreat 
before making an attack. To this Mr. Chandler's response was: 

"General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before 
" you strike at the rebels you want to be sure of plenty of room 
" so that you can run in case they strike back ! " 

"Or in case you get scared," added Senator Wade. 

The commander of the Army of the Potomac manifested 
indignation at this blunt way of putting the case, and then pro- 
ceeded at length to explain the art of war and the science of 
generalship, laying special stress upon the necessity of having 
lines of retreat, as well as lines of communication and supply, 
always open. He labored hard to make clear all the methods 
and counter -methods upon which campaigns are managed and 
battles fought, and, as he was an accomplished master of the 
theory of war, succeeded in rendering himself at least interest- 
ing. After he had concluded, Mr, Wade said : 

" General, you have all the troops you have called for, and 
"if you haven't enough, you shall have more. They are well 
" organized and equipped, and the loyal people of this country 
" expect that you will make a short and decisive campaign. Is 
" it really necessary for you to have more bridges over the Poto- 
" mac before you move ? " 

"ISTot that," was the answer, "not that exactly, but we must 
" bear in mind the necessity of having everything ready in case 
" of a defeat, and keep our lines of retreat open." 
15 



226 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

AV^itli this remark General McCJlellan left the room, where- 
upon Mr. Wade asked : 

'^ Chandler, what do you think of the science of general- 
ship?" 

" I don't know much about war," was the reply, "but it 
seems to me that this is infernal, unmitigated cowardice." 

The committee, after this interview, made a careful iiujuiry 
into the strength of the rebel forces confronting the elaborate 
intrenchments about Washington, and became convinced that the 
army at and about Manassas was a handful compared with the 
magnificent body of troops under MeClelhurs command. They 
submitted these facts to the President and his Cabinet at a 
special session held for that purpose, and urged the importance 
of an instant advance. With one single exception ( a Cabinet 
officer) the heads of the departments and the committee agreed 
that an offensive movement from the line of the Potomac into 
Yirginia was important and must be made. General McClellan 
promised that his army should start, but it did not. Toward the 
close of the winter the President ordered a general advance, but 
the Army of the Potomac still remained immobile. Finally, on 
March 10, under the peremj^tory orders of the President, it did 
advance to Centreville and found there deserted camps, wooden 
guns, weak intrenchments, and traces of the retreat of not more 
than a single full corps of rebel troops. It was during this most 
aggravating delay that members of the committee had another 
characteristic interview with General McClellan. On the 19th of 
February a sub -committee waited upon the Secretary of War* to 
ask why the army was idle, and why the city of Washington 
and the North side of the Potomac river were crowded with 
troops when the enemy was all in Virginia. Mr. Wade said 
that it was a disgrace to the nation that Washington was thus 
allowed to remain to all intents and purposes in a state of siege. 

♦ Edwin M. Stanton had succeeded Simon Cameron on Jan. 13, 1862. 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 221 

To tliis Secretary Stanton replied tliat the committee conlcl not 
feel more keenly upon this subject than did he, that he did not 
go to bed at night without his cheek burning with shame at this 
disgrace, and that the subject had received his earnest attention, 
bnt he had not been able to change the situation as he wished. 
General McClellau was then sent for, and Secretary Stanton 
stated to him the object of the visit, and repeated the inquiries 
as to wliy an advance movement was not made into Virginia, 
the rebels driven away from Washington, and the soldiers who 
were idle in their camps in and around the city sent to active 
duty. 

General McClellan answered that he was considering the 
matter, bnt that instant action was impossible, although he hoped 
that he would soon be able to decide what ought to be done. 
The committee asked what time he would require to reach a 
decision. He replied that it depended upon circumstances; that 
he would not give his consent to have the troops about Wash- 
ington sent over to the Virginia side of the Potomac without 
having their rear protected more fully, and better lines of retreat 
open; that he designed throwing a temporary bridge across the 
river as soon as possible, and making a permanent structure of 
it at his leisure. That would make three bridges, and then the 
requisite precautions would be completed. 

Mr. Wade replied, with great impatience, that M'ith 150,000 
of the best troops the world ever saw, there was no need of 
more bridges; that the rebels Avere inferior in numbers and con- 
dition, and that retreat would be treason, " These 150,000 men," 
Mr. Wade said, " could whip the whole Confederacy if they were 
"given a chance; if I was their commander I would lead them 
" across the Potomac, and they should not come back until they 
" had won a victory and the war was ended, or they came m 
" their coffins." Mr. Wade spoke strongly and plainly througli- 
out the interview, and the Secretary of War endorsed every 



228 ZACIIARIAII (HANDLER. 

M'ord lie uttered. The committee luid another conference with 
Secretary Stanton on tlie following day at his residence, at which 
it was decided that they should co-o})erate with liim in an effort 
to persuade President Lincoln either to displace McCk-llan or to 
compel liiui to commence an active campaign at once. On the 
25th of February this conference with the President was held, 
and it was followed by others, Senators Chandler and Wade 
finally threatening to make the laggardness of the commander of 
the Army of the Potomac a subject of debate in the Senate, 
and to offer a resolution directing the President to order an 
advance forthwith. The first result was what the committee 
were so anxious to accomplish. In March, the armies commenced 
to move, and McClellan, at last taking the field in person, pushed 
out to Centreville, and then followed up this delayed advance 
by his flank movement to the Peninsula, driving the rebels out 
of Yorktown by a month's work w^ith the shovel, and following 
General Johnston up to Williamsburg, where a bloody victory 
was won, but its fruits were left ungathered. This campaign 
was short, bloody, and blundering, ending with the battle oi 
Malvern Hill, which was also deprived of its proper importance 
by McClellan's failure to follow up his advantage with a prompt 
advance upon Piclxmond, and which thus in the end amounted 
to but little more than another Union reverse. Mr. Chandler 
always firmly believed that had McClellan moved toward the 
rebel capital and not toward his gunboats after Malvern Hill, 
the war would have been shortened by two years. 

When it first became evident that General McClellan was, 
by suUeiniess and incapacity, throwing away advantages gained 
by the heroism of his troops on the Peninsula, Mr. Chandler 
determined to denounce him on the floor of the Senate, but was 
restrained by Mr. Stanton, who urged that, while the campaign 
was still in active progress, there w^as yet some hope of a change 
for the better, and that to destroy confidence in a commanding 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 229 

officer under such circumstances might injure the army in tlio 
field. After Malvern Hill these reasons ceased to have force, 
and Mr. Chandler commenced the careful preparation of his 
speech. This time the Secretary of War endorsed the timeliness 
as well as the truth of the expose^ and the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War by formal vote authorized the use of the 
testimony taken before it and not yet made public. After he 
had gathered and grouped the facts which formed the basis of 
his arraignment, Mr. Chandler submitted them to a friend upon 
whose good judgment and sincerity he greatly relied, and asked: 

"Knowing all these facts, as T do, what is my duty?" 

The answer was: "Beyond all question, these facts ought 
" to be laid before the country, for the knowledge of them is 
"essential to its safety. But they will create a storm that will 
" sweep either you or McClellan from public life, and it is more 
"than probable that you will be the victim." 

Mr. Chandler said: "I did not ask your opinion of the 
f^onsequences, but of my duty." 

To this it was replied : " The speech ought to be made, and 
no one else will make it." 

Mr. Chandler simply said: ''It will be made to-day; come 
and hear it." And he did make it, in the midst of a run- 
ning discussion on a bill "to provide for the discharge of state 
prisoners and others," which ^vas the special order in the Senate 
for that day (July 16, 18G2). 

Mr. Chandler commenced by briefly reciting the history of 
the appointment of the committee, and then gave from the 
evidence taken at its sessions a compact summary of the causes 
of the Bull Run disaster, fortifying each point with citations 
from the testimouy. After closing this ]xirt of his speech he 
proceeded to review the Ball's BlufE catastrophe, saying: 

Were the people discouraged, depressed ? Not at all. Untold Ihousands 
rushed mlo the shattered ranks, eager to wipe out the stain and stigma of 



^30 ZACIIAlUAil CHANDLER. 

that defeat (Bull Run). From the East, the West, the North, and the Middle 
States, thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands came 
pouring in,' until the government said, "Hold, enough." The Army of the 
Potomac, denuded in August of three - months' men and scarcely numbering 
50,000 ellicient men, swelled in September to over 100,000, in October to 
150,000, in November to 175,000 and upward, until, on the lOlh day of 
Dv,'cember, the morning rolls showed 105,400 men, and thirteen regiments 
not reported, chietly intended for the Burnside expedition, but all under 
the command of General McClellau. During the months of October, Novem- 
ber, and December, the weather was delightful and the roads fine. The 
question began to be asked in October, when will the advance take place ? 
All had the most unbounded confidence in the army and its young gen- 
eral, and were an.Kiously waiting for a Napoleonic stroke. It came, but 
such a stroke ! That a general movement was being piepared tlie whole 
country had known for weeks; but when the terrific blow was to be struck 
no one knew save the commander of the Army ot the Potomac. The nation 
believed in its young commander ; the President relied upon him, and all, 
myself included, had the most unbounded confidence in the result of the 
intended movement. It came ! On the 21st ot October, ^McCall's division, 
12,000 strong, was ordered to Drainesville upon a reconnoissance. Smith's 
division, 12,000 strong, was ordered to support him. McC'all s reconnoissance 
extended four miles beyond Drainesville, and to within nine miles of Leesburg. 
Stone, on Sunday, was informed of McCall's and Smith's advance, and directed 
to make a slight demonstration upon Leesburg. How ? He could do it in 
but one way, and that was by crossing the river and moving upon it. [J\Ir. 
Chandler here introduced a mass of testimony and official orders to show that 
Col. E. D. Baker, whom General Stone sent across the Potomac at Ball's 
Bluff, had ample reasons to believe that he would be sustained in that advance, 
and reinforced if necessary. He proceeded .• ] Thus it is shown that Colonel 
Baker had reason to expect reinforcements, for the enemy were to be pushed 
upon their flank by General Gorman. 

At two o'clock on ]\ronday morning Colonel Dcvens crossed the river upon 
a reconnoissance with 400 men at Ball's Bluff, opposite Harrison's Island, as 
directed by General Stone. At daylight Colonel Baker was ordered to crass 
to the support of Colonel Devens. I have read his orders. One scow and 
two small boats were their only means of transportation. At eight o'clock on 
Monday morning the fight commenced by Colonel Devens, and Colonel Baker 
was placed in command, as is alleged, with discretionary orders. Colonel 
Baker knew that Smith and McCall were at Drainesville, or within striking 
distance, that our troops were crossing at Edward's Ferry, or, in other words, 
that 40,000 effective men were within twelve miles of him, and that at least 
30,000 were upon the Virginia side of the Potomac, and thai, in thp nature of 
things, he must be reinforced. He did not know that at half -past ten a. m., 
of Monday, or two and one • half hours after Colonel Devens commenced the 



( 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 231 

flgM, the divisions of Smith and McCall commenced their retreat by the 
express orders of General McClellan. He knew that Colonel Devens was con- 
tending with greatly superior forces, and, like a gallant soldier as he was, he 
hastened to his relief with all the force he could cross with his inadequate 
means of transportation. 

Colonel Baker has been charged with imprudence and rashness ; but 
neither the facts nor the testimony support the charge. Instead of rashly or 
imprudently advancing into the enemy's lines, as was alleged, he did not move 
ten rods from the Bluff, and the only sustaining witness to this charge was 
one officer, who swore that he thought Colonel Baker imprudently exposed 
himself to the enemy's bullets. This kind of rashness is usually pardoned 
after the death of the perpetrator. At two o'clock p. m. Colonel Baker found 
himself in command of about 1,800 men upon Ball's BluPf, including Devens's 
men and three guns, and the fighting commenced. The alternatives were fight 
and conquer, surrender, or be captured. That noble band of heroes and their , 
gallant commander understood these terrible alternatives as well upon that 
bloody field as we do now, and nobly did they vindicate their manhood. 
During all those long hours, from two o'clock p. M. until the early dusk of 
evening, the gallant Baker continued the unequal contest, when he fell pierced 
by three bullets and instantly expired. A council of war was called (after 
the frightful death-struggle over his lifeless remains and for them), and it 
was decided that the only chance of an escape was by cutting through the 
enemy and reaching Edward's Ferry, which was at once decided upon ; but. 
while forming for the desperate encounter, the enemy rushed upon our little 
band of heroes in overpowering numbers, and the rout was perfect. . . . 
How many were killed in battle, how many drowned in the relentless river, 
will never be correctly known ; suffice it to say, our little force was destroyed. 
Why was this little band permitted to be destroyed by a force little more 
than double its numbers in presence of 40,000 splendid troops ? Why were 
McCall and Smith ordered back at the very moment that Baker was ordered 
to cross? If we wanted Leesburg, McCall could have taken it without the 
loss of a man, as his movement in mass had already caused its evacuation, 
and the enemy did not return in force until after McCall had retreated. If 
we did not wish to capture Leesburg, why did we cross at all ? Of what use 
is "a slight demonstration" even, without results? These are qiicstions which 
the people will ask, and no man can satisfactorily answer. Why were not 
reinforcements sent from Edward's Ferry to Colonel Baker? The distance 
was only three - and - a - half miles. We had 1,500 men across at two o'clock 
on Monday, and the universal concurrent testimony of officers and men is that 
a reinforcement of even 1,000 men — some say 500, and one gallant captain 
swears that with 100 men he could have struck them upon the flank,— 
would have changed the result of the day. Why were not reinforcements 
sent ? Stone swears, as I have already shown, that there were batteries 
between Edward's Ferry and Ball's Bluff which would have utterly destroyed 



232 ZAClIAlilAll CHANDLER. 

an\' force he co\iUl have seiit to Baker's relief, and that Baker knew it. But 
Stone was not sustaiued by a single witness ; on the contrary, all swear tliat 
there were not, to their knowledge, and that they did not believe there wore 
any, and a civilian living upon the spot, and in the habit of passing over the 
"round frequently, swears there were none ; and again. Stone, when (questioned 
as to the erection of forts under the range of his guns \i\Hm his second 
examination, swears positively that there is not a gun now between Edward's 
Ferry and Ball's Bluff, and never has been. Why, then, were not reinforce- 
ments sent from Edward's Ferry ? Let the men who executed and planned this 
horrible slaughter answer to God and an outraged country. General Banks 
swears that his orders were such from General McClellan, that, upon his anival 
at Edward's Ferry, although his judgment was against crossing, he did not 
feel himself at liberty to decline crossing, and he remained upon the Virginia 
side until Thursday. ... So much for the wholesale murder at Ball's 
Bluff. 

Mr. Chandler next attacked General McClellan's disastrous 
procrastination. Describing the lapse of an army of 150,000 
men into a state of chronic inaction in its intrencliments about 
Washington after the BalFs Bluff disaster, he laid before the 
Senate and the country documents which proved these facts : In 
October, 1861, the Navy Department recpiested that 4,000 men 
might be detailed to hold Matthias Point on the lower Potomac, 
after the gunboats should ha\'e shelled out the rebels, who were 
then in possession, and thus in control of the navigation of 
that important river. General McClellan agreed to furnish the 
infantry ; twice the Na\y Department prepared its vessels for the 
expedition, but the troops did not report for duty, so that, finally, 
the gunboats were necessarily detailed for other service, and the 
unnecessary, expensive and humiliating blockade of the Potomac 
continued for months. Mr. Chandler then proceeded: 

Why was this disgrace so long submitted to ? No man knows or attempts 
to explain. Month after month one of the most splendid armies the world 
had ever seen, of 200,000 men, permitted itself and the national capital to be 
besieged by a force never exceeding one -half its own number. 

During the month of December, the nation became impatient. The time 
had arrived and passed when we were promised a forward movement. The 
roads were good, the weatiier splendid, the army in high condition, and eager 
for the fray. How long the roads and weather would permit the movement, 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 233- 



uo man could predict ; still there was no movement. The generals, with great 
unanimity, declared that the army had reached its maximum of proficiency 
as volunteers, but still there was no movement. Under these circumstances, 
the Committee on the Conduct of the War asked an interview with the Presi- 
dent and Cabinet, and urged that the winter should not be permitted to pass 
without action, as it would lead to an incalculable loss of life and treasure by 
forcing our brave troops into a summer campaign, in a hot and to them 
inhospitable climate. The President and Cabinet were united in the desire 
that an immediate advance should be made, but it was not made, although 
v/e were assured by General McClellan that it would be very soon, that he 
had no intention of going into winter quarters, and he did not ! While the 
enemy erected comfortable huts at Centreville and Manassas for their winter 
quarters, our brave and eager troops spent the most uncomfortable winter ever 
known in this climate under canvas, as thousands and tens of thousands of 
invalid soldiers tlu-oughout the length and breadth of the land will attest. 
Why did not the army move in all December, or why did it not go into 
winter quarters ? No man knows, nor is any reason assigned. 

On the 1st day of January, 1863, and for months previous to that date, 
the armies of the republic were occupying a purely defensive position upon 
the whole line from Missouri to the Atlantic, until on or about the 27th 
of January the President and Secretary of War issued the order forward. 
Then the brave Foote took the initiative, soliciting 3,000 men from Ilalleck to 
hold Fort Henry after he had captured it with his gunboats. They were 
promptly furnished, and Henry fell ; then Donelson, with its 15,000 prisoners ; 
then Newbern, and the country v.-as electrified. Credit was given where credit 
was due. Do-nothing strategy gave way to an "immediate advance upon the 
enemy's works," and the days of spades and pickaxes seemed to be ended. 
On the 32d of February a forward movement upon our whole line was 
ordered, but did not take place. The Army of the Potomac was not ready ; 
but on the 10th of March it moved, against the protest of the commanding 
general and eight out of twelve of the commanders of divisions; but the Presi- 
dent was inexorable,, and the movement must be made It proceeded to 
Centreville, and there found deserted huts, wooden artillery, and intrench- 
mcnts which could and can be successfully charged by cavalry. It proceeded 
to Manassas, and found no fortifications worthy of the name, a deserted, abau 
doned camp, and dead horses for trophies. The enemy, less than 40,000 men, 
had leisurely escaped, carrying away all their artillery, baggage, arms, and 
stores. Our Army of the Potomac, on that 10th day of March, showed by 
its muster-roll a force of 230,000 men. Comment is needless! The Grand 
Army of the Potomac proceeded toward Gordonsville, found no enemy, 
repaired the railroad, and then marched back again. 

Why this Grand Army of the Potomac did not march upon Richmond has 
never been satisfactorily explained, and probably never wiS be. Oue reason 
assigned was lack of transportation ; but there were two raih-oads, oue by 



234: ZACII.VKIAII CHANDLER. 



way of Acciiiia Creek and Fredericksburg, (lu; other via Manassas and Gor- 
donsville, wluch eould have been repaired at the rale of ten miles per day, 
and our army was ample to guard it. liad this overwhelming force proceeded 
du-ectly to Richmond by these lines, it would have spent the 1st day of May 
in Richmond, aijd ere this the rebellion would have been ended. Tliis grand 
army, ably commanded, was superior to any army the world has seen for five 
hundred years. Napoleon I. never fought 130,000 men upon one battle-field. 
Yet this noble army was divided and virtually sacrificed by some one. Who 
is tlie culprit ? 

Before the advance upon ^lanassas, General McCIellan changed his plans, 
and demanded to be permitted to leave the enemy intrenclied at Centreville 
and ^Manassas, to leave the Potomac blockaded, and to take his army to 
Annapolis by land, and there embark them for the rear of the enemy to 
surprise him. In tlic council of war called upon this proposition, the com- 
manding general and eight out of twelve of the commanders of divisions (and 
here permit me to say that I am informed that seven out of the eight generals 
were appointed upon the recommendation of General McCIellan) voted that it 
was not safe to advance upon the wooden guns of Centreville, and to adopt 
the new plan of campaign. The President and the Secretary of "War over- 
ruled this pusillanimous decision, and compelled McCIellan to " move imme- 
diately upon the enemy's works." He marched, and the trophies of that 
memorable campaign are known to the Senate and the country. 

At Fairfax, General McCIellan changed his plan and decided not to 
advance upon the rebels with his whole force, but to return to Alexandria, 
divide his army, and embark for Fortress Monroe and Yorktown. It was 
decided that 45,000 men should be left for the defense of the capital, and he 
was permitted to embark. After much delay (unavoidable in the movement of 
so vast a force, with its enormous material) the general -in -chief himself 
embarked. Soon after he sailed it came to the knowledge of the Committee 
on the Conduct of the War that the capital, with its vast accumulation of 
material of war, had been left by General IMcClellan virtually without defense, 
and the enemy's whole force, large or small, was untouched in front. [Mr. 
Chandler here introduced the official testimony to prove that General INIcClellan 
had so denuded Washington as to compel the President to interpose and 
detain General McDowell's corps for its adequate defense. He then said :] 
The country has been deceived. It has been led to believe that the Secretary 
of War or somebody else has interfered with General iMcClellan's plans, when 
he had an army that could have crushed any other army on the face of the 
earth. One hundred and fifty -eight thousand of the best troops that ever 
stood on God's footstool were sent down to the Peninsula and placed under 
command of General JMcClcllan ; and yet the whole treasonable press of tho 
country has been howling after the Secretary of War because of his alleged 
refusal to send reinforcements to General ^IcClellan. As I said the other day, 
he has sent every man, every sabre, every bayonet, every horse, that could 



I 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 235 

be spared from any source whatever to increase that grand army under 
General McClellan in front of llichmond. Wliy did lie not enter Richmond? 
We shall see. . . . It is not for me, sir, to state the strength of 
McClellan's army at this time ; but I know it is 158,000 men, less the number 
lost by sickness and casunlties. Does any man doubt that this army, ably 
handled, was sulH(,-ieutly strong to have captured Richmond and crushed 
the rebel army '/ I think not, if promptly led against the enemy ; but instead 
of that, it sat down in malarious swamps and awaited the draftmg, arming, 
drilling, and making soldiers of an army to fight it, and in the meantime our 
own army was rapidly wasting away. Unwholesome water, inadequate food, 
over- work, and sleeping in marshes, were rapidly filling the hosiiitals, and 
overloading the return boats with the sick. Sir, we have lost more men by 
the spade than the bullet, five to one, since the army started from Yorktown 
under McClellan. Had the soldiers been relieved from digging and menial 
labor by the substitution of negro laborers, the Army of the Potomac would 
to-day, in my estimation, contain 30,000 more brave and efficient soldiers than 
it does. Had it been relieved from, guarding the property of rebels in arms, 
many valuable lives would have been saved. Yorktown was evacuated after a 
sacrifice of more men by sickness than the enemy had in their works when our 
army landed at Fortress Monroe. The battle of Williamsburg was fought by a 
small fraction of our army, and the enemy routed. During the battle, General 
McClellan wrote a dispatch, miles from the field of battle, saying he should • 
try to "hold them in check" there. ... He would try to "hold them in 
check ! " He could not hold them. He could not stop his eager troops from 
chasing them. After a small fraction of his army had whipped their entire 
force and had been chasing them for hours, he penned that dispatch and sent 
it to the Secretary of War, and, if I remember aright, it Avas read in one of 
the two houses of Congress. As you may suppose from that dispatch, there 
was no great eagerness in following up that victory. Three Michigan regi- 
ments were not only decimated, they were divided in twain, in that bloody 
battle at Williamsburg. They fought there all day without reinforcements. 
One Michigan regiment went into the trenches and left, sixty -three dead 
rebels, killed by the bayonet, weltering in their blood. But who has ever 
heard, by any offlcial communication from the head of the army, that a Mich- 
igan regiment was in the fight at Williamsburg ? I do not blame him for not 
giving credit where credit is due, for I do not believe he knew anything more 
of that fight than you or I. 

When that bat^tle was fousrht and won, all the enemy's works Avere cleared 
away, and we had an open road to Richmond. There was not a single forti- 
fication between Bichraond and Williamsburg. All we had to do was to get 
through those infernal swamps, march up, and take possession of Richmond. 
What did we do ? We found the worst swamp there was between Richmond 
and Williamsburg, and sat right down in the center of it and went to digging. 
We sacrificed thousands and tens of thousands of the bravest troops that ever 



236 ZACHARIAII CII.VNDLKR. 



stood on the face of God's earth, di;i^ging in front of no intronchments, and 
before a whipped army of the enemy. We waited for them to recruit ; we 
waited for tliem to get another army. Tliey had a levy en masse. They were 
taking all the men and boys between the ages of fifteen and fifty -five, and 
magnanimously we waited weeks and weeks and weeks for them to bring 
these forced levies into some sort of consistencj' as an army. The battle of 
Fair Oaks was fought. There the enemy found again a little fraction of our 
army, very much less than half, and they brought out their entire force. I 
have it from the best authority that they had not a solitary regiment in or 
about Richmond that was fit tn put in front of an enemy that they did not 
bring to Fair Oaks and hurl upon our decimated army. Again the indomi- 
table bravery of our troops ( of the men, of private soldiers, the indomitable 
energy of Michigan men and New Jersey men — but I will not particular- 
ize, for all the troops fought like lions), and the fighting capacity of our 
army not only saved it from being utterly destroyed by an overwhelming 
force, but gave us a triumphant victory. The enemy went back to Richmond 
pell-mell. I have been informed by a man who was there at the time, that 
two brigades of fresh troops could have chased the whole Confederate army 
through the city of Richmond and into the James rivet, so utter was their 
rout and confusion. 

And what did we do then ? Wc found another big swamp, and we sat 
down in the center of it and went to digging. We began to throw up 
intrcnchments when there were no intrenchments in our front, no enemy that 
was not utterly broken. We never took advantage of the battle of Fair Oaks. 
Again Michigan soldiers were cut to pieci-s by hundreds. Go into the Judi- 
ciary square hospital in this city, and you will find more than half the occu- 
pants are Micliigan men who were shot at Fair Oaks and Williamsburg, men 
who stood until a regiment of 1,000 men was reduced to 105, and even then 
did not run. Sir, these men have been sacrificed, uselessly sacrificed. They 
have been put to hard digging, and hard fare, and hard sleeping, and if there 
was any hard fighting to do they have been put to that ; and, besides all 
this, at night tliey have had to guard the property of rebels in arms. They 
have been so sacrificed that two or three of the IMichigan regiments to-day 
cannot bring into the field 350 men each out of 1,000 with wiiom they started. 

Fair Oaks was lost ; that is to say, we w-on a brilliant victory, but it did 
us no good ; we did not take advantage of it. Of course it would have been 
very unfair to take advantage of a routed army [laughter] ; it would not 
have been according to our "strategy." Wc magnanimously stopped, and 
commenced digging. There was no army in our front ; there were no 
intrenchments in our front ; but we did not know what else to do. and so wc 
began to dig and ditch, and we kept digijing and ditching until tlie rebels had 
imincssed and drilled and armed and made soldiers of tlicir entire population. 
But that was not enough ; they sent Jackson up on his raid to Winchester, 
and we waited for him to come back with his twenty or thirty thousand men. 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 23 ^ 



We beard that Corinth was being evacuated, and of course it would have 
been very unfair to commence an attack until they brought their troops from 
Corinth, and so we waited for the army at Corinth to get to Richmond. 
After the rebels had got all the troops they ever hoped to raise from any 
source, we did not attack them, but they attacked us, as we had reason to 
suppose they would. They attacked our right wing, and, as I am informed 
upon what I must deem reliable authority, they hurled the majority of their 
entire force upon our right wing of 30,000 men, and during the whole of that 
Thursday our right wing of 30,000 men held their ground, and repulsed that 
vast horde of the enemy over and over again, and held their ground at night. 
Of course you will say a reinforcement of twenty or thirty thousand men was 
seat to these brave troops that they might not only hold their ground the 
next day, but send this distardly army into Richmond a second time, as at 
Fair Oaks. No, sir, nothing of the sort was done. 

At night, instead of sending them reinforcements, they were ordered to 
retreat. That was "strategy ! " The moment they commenced their retreat, as 
IS said in the dispatches, the enemy fought like demons. Of course they 
would. Who ever heard of a retrealmg army that was not pursued by the 
victors like demons, except in the case of rebel retreats ? No other nation 
but ours Avas ever guilty of stopping immediately after a victory. Other 
armies fight like demons after a victory, and annihilate the enemy, but we 
do not. Our left v/ing and center remained intact. A feint was made upon 
the left and center, and 1 have here, not tiie sworn testimony, but the state- 
ment of one of the bravest men in tlie whole Army of the Polomac — I will 
not give his name, but a more highly honorable man lives not — that wheii 
his regiment was ordered under arms, he had no doubt that he was going to 
march into Richmond. He believed the whole force of the enemy had 
attacked our right wing ; he believed there was nothing but a screen of 
pickets in front ; and he thought that now our great triumph was to come off. 
His men sprang into line with avidity, prepared to rush into Richmond and 
take it at the point of the bayonet. He never discovered his error until he saw 
a million and a half dollars^ worth of property burned in front of his regi- 
ment, and then he began to think that an advance upon Richmond was not 
intended. And it was not ! We had been at work there and had lost 10,000 
men in digging intrenchments ; we had spent months in bringing up siege 
guns, and we abandoned those intrenchments without firing one gun. Our 
army was ordered to advance on the gunboats instead of on Richmond. This 
colonel told me that his regiment fought three days and whipped the enemy 
each day, and retreated each night. The left wing and center were untouched 
until they were ordered to retreat. No portion of our vast force had been 
fought except the right wing under Porter, and they whipped the enemy the 
first day. 

This is called strategy ! Again, sir, I ask, Why was this great Army of 
the Potomac of 230,000 men divided? Human ingenuity could not have 



238 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 



devised auy other way to defeat that army ; Divine wisdom could scarcely 
have devised any other way to defeat it lliaii that which w:is adopted. There 
is no army in Europe to-day that could meet the Army of the Potomac when 
it was 230,000 strong, the best lighting material ever put into an army 
on the face of the earth. Why was tliat grand array divided ? I simply 
charsre that grave and serious errors have been committed, and, as I have said, 
no otiuT way could liavc been devised to defeat that army. If the 158,000 
men that were sent to General McClellan had been marched upon the enemy, 
they could have whipped all the armies the Confederates liave, and all they 
are likely to have for six months. One hundred and fifty -eight thousand men 
are about as many as can he fought on any one battle-field. One hundred and 
fifty -eight thousand men are a vast army, a great deal larger army than that 
with which Napoleon destroyed 600,000 of the Austrians in a single year. 
One hundred and fifty -eight thousand men ably handled can defeat any force 
the Confederates can raise ; and that is the force that went down to the 
Peninsula. But, sir, it lay in ditches, digging, drinking rotten water, and 
eating bad food, and sleeping in the mud, until it became grcatl}' reduced in 
numbers, and of those that were left very many were injured in health. Still 
they fought ; still they conquered in every fight , and still they retreated, 
because Ihey were ordered to retreat 

Sir, I have deemed it my duty to present this statement of facts to the 
Senate and the country. I know that I am to be denounced for so doing, 
and I tell you who will denounce me. There are two classes of men who 
are sure to denounce me, and no one else, and they are traitors and fools. 
The traitors have been denouncing every man who did not sing pecans to 
"strategy," when it led to defeat every time. The traitors North are worse 
than the traitors South, and sometimes I think we have as many of them in 
the aggregate. They are meaner men , they are men who will come behind 
you and cut your throat in the dark. I have great respect for Southern 
traitors who shoulder their muskets and come out and take the chances of the 
bullets and the halter ; but I have the most superlative contempt for the 
Northern traitors, who, under the pretended guise of patriotism, are stabbing 
their country in the dark. 

The effect of this speecli M-as j^rofoimd. It enraged McClcl- 
lan's friends to the highest pitch ; it was not supported at the 
time by any like utterance in Congress, and at first many wlio 
believed it to be true condemned, or at least deprecated, the 
fierceness of the attack ; but those who knew that " the young 
Kapoleon" at heart preferred a pro -slavery compromise to tl.e 
conquest of a durable and honorable peace, and who had marked 
with righteous indignation the attempt of his claquers to make 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 239 

the Secretary of War the scape -goat for his own blunders, 
greeted with enthusiasm the signal courage of the man who, in 
the face of abuse, prejudice, and popular blindness, dared to tell 
with words of rugged force this story of disastrous imbecility. 
Mr. Chandler disregarded the remonstrances of weak friends, and 
met without quailing the storm of vituperation he had invited. 
Events made themselves his justitiers and within four months* 



President Lincoln, with the full approval of the patriotic masses 
of the Korth, relieved General McClellan from all command and 
abruptly terminated his military career. Nothing contributed 
more to this salutary change than Mr. Chandler's arraignment, of 
which it has been well said, that "with w^ords resembling battles 
" he told the American people that they were leaning upon a 
" broken reed, that ' the idol of the soldiers ' was as incapable of 
" helping them as the idols of the heathen, and that McClellan 
" was only digging graves for the brave men wdio followed him 
" and a last ditch for the cause he defended ; he shocked by his 
" language the mass of the people into a right comprehension of 
"the death's dance this military Jack-o'-lantern was leading 
" them through the swamps of Virginia." 

Mr. Chandler, who took this step after full deliberation and 
not from any passing impulse, rated the McClellan speech as 
his most important public service, alike in its necessity, its time- 
liness, and its results. lie also felt that it involved more real 
hazard, and made larger demands upon his courage, than any 
other act of his Senatorial career, for such relentless invective 
could scarcely fail to mortally wound either its object or its 
maker. Had time shown that he had uttered calumnies and nofe 
the sober truth, he would have been inevitably driven from 
public life; and even when he spoke, the men who thoroughly 
doubted McClellan were still a small minority. History has 

* On 7^ov. 7, 1862. 



240 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

sliowii that his iudictnieut was as true in substance as it was 
unsparing in terms and bold in spirit. ^ 

/^ Two other matters naturally gror:p themselves with this 
speech: Mr. Chandler distrusted McCiellanisiii in the Army of 
the Potomac as thoroughly as he did McClellan. The investiga- 
tions of this committee convinced him that General Pope's 
campaign was so unfortunate because of the insubordination of 
General McClellan''s friends among the corps connnanders, and 
led him to believe that the same cause crippled the movements" 
of both Burnside and Hooker, who, if faithfully supported, would 
have won decisive victories. So strong were his convictions on 
these points, that when General Grant became commander - in- 
chief he called upon the Secretary of War and requested him to 
make out a list of the incompetent, suspected and insubordinate 
generals of the Army of the Potomac, to be furnished to that 
officer so that he would be able to place them where they could 
do the least harm in the service. This Secretary Stanton prom- 
ised to do. A few days afterward Mr. Chandler called again at 
the War Department, and, learning that this had not yet been 
done, said, '' I will make out the list myself and send it to 
Grant;" and he did so. Major -Gen. C. C. Washburn being its 
bearer. Mr. Chaiuller carefully studied and vigilantly watched 
the Fitz-John Porter case, and ai:)provcd of the findings of the 
court -martial, except the failure to inflict the death penalty, 
which he believed that the character and consequences of Porter's 
action fully merited. The attempt to secure the reversal of this 
verdict and the re-instatement in the army of the dismissed officer 
aroused his sternest indignation, and he fought it resolutely at 
every stage — and successfully, while he remained m the Senate. 
He spoke at length on this subject in that body on Feb. 21, 
1870, declaring that he did so In fulfillment of a voluntary 
pledge given some years before in the same chamber to General 
Pope, " that justic3 should be done to him and to his campaign 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 241 

" in the valley of Virginia, even although I were called upon to 
"vindicate him from my seat in the Senate." After rehearsing 
the facts connected with Pope's movement, which was planned to 
create a diversion of Lee's army for the extrication of McClel- 
lan's forces from the Peninsula, in conformity with the suggestion 
of Gen. James S. Wadsworth, and showing that Pope had fre- 
quently requested to be relieved from the hazardous work laid 
out for him and that he had only a force of 42,000 men scat- 
tered between Hai-per's Ferry and Acquia Creek, Mr. Chandler 
said : 

I asked him in the presence of the committee: "What is to prevent you 
from being st-ruck by a superior force of the enemy and overwhelmed?" Said 
he: "Nothing on earth is more probable than that I shall be struck by a 
"superior force and shall be vphipped; but I will keep my troops near the 
' ' mountains, and there are no ten miles where there is not a gulch up which 
"I can take my men and small -arms, and, by abandoning my artillery and 
"baggage, save my men; I shall probably be whipped, but it must be done." 
Any military man can see and appreciate the difficulties and responsibilities of 
so desperate a campaign. "Yet," said he, "it must be done." 

Well, sir. General Pope started on that campaign. Had he announced to 
the newspaper press of Washington, or of the North, the number of his men 
or his object, the object itself would have been defeated. General Pope did 
what I believe is allowable in war: he perpetrated a ruse de guerre. He sent 
his scouts all through the mountains of Virginia proclaiming that he had an 
army of 120,000 men. And, sir, he fooled the newspaper correspondents of 
the city of Washington and of the whole North. General Pope, when he 
started on that campaign, had no more idea of going to Richmond than he 
had of following Elijah to Heaven in a chariot of fire without seeing death. 
He started with one single object, and that was to save the army of McClel- 
lan, or to do all that was in his power to save it. He massed his troops, and 
that terrible battle of Cedar Mountain was fought; and by that battle he not 
only fooled the people of this country, but he fooled the rebels. The rebels 
believed that he had 120,000 men, and that, unless they fought him and 
crushed him before he could unite with the Army of the Potomac, their cause 
was lost ; and he drew upon his shoulders with that little force the whole 
rebel army, so that, when McClellan started for Yorktown, there was not 
even a popgun fired at his troops. The ruse was a perfect success, and, as I 
told General Pope then, "I consider that your campaign has been one of the 
most brilliant that has been fought up to this time" — which was February, 
1863 — "you saved two armies.; you first saved the Army of the Potomac, and 
then you saved your own." 
16 



242 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 

Sir, General Pope fouuilit for eleven days, fou.ijht night and day, fought 
the wliole rebel army with his little force, his force never having exceeded 
70,000 men, — comprising not simply his own army, but also General Burn- 
side's forces, and the 30,000 men who had in thirty days been brought up 
from the Army of the Potomac, and of whom Porter's corps was part. The 
force which he had met with these was that originally in his front, but over- 
wliehningly augmented by that rebel force from which McOlellan, with his 
90,000 men, had to be delivered by a demonstration in their rear, lie 
fought for time. He defended every brook, every barn, every piece of woods, 
every ravine. He fought for time for the Army of the Potomac to reach him 
and unite with him, so as to crush the advancing and overwhelming force of 
the rebels. 

Mr. Chandler tlien reviewed at length (and with copious 
citations from the testimony of eye - witnesses and the official 
orders) the facts as to Fitz-John Porter's course in Pope's cam- 
paign, adding extracts from the reports of rebel officers which 
liad come into the possession of the government since the war, 
and closed as follows: 

Mr. President, if I had more time I should like to go more fully into 
this subject ; but I cannot. The court, after forty - tive days spent in careful 
investigation, brought in unanimously the verdict against Porter. Many of 
the members of that court were in favor of sentencing him to sufEer death. 
It is rumored, and many believe, that the only reason the death - penalty was 
not inflicted was the fear that Mr. Lincoln, whose kindness of heart was so 
well - known, would not execute the sentence ; and, hence, they unanimously 
brought in the verdict they did. It was first carefully examined seriatim bj' 
the then Secretary of War and the President. No more just tribunal ever 
investigated a case, I presume to assert, than this tribunal, and there its find- 
ing stands. 

It may be asked. How came it that a misunderstanding, almost as uni- 
versal as complete, was suffered to be put upon the country ? General Pope 
himself says: "The next day it (my report) was delivered to General Hal- 
"leck; but by that time influences of questionable character, and transactions 
"of most unquestiona1)le impropriety, which were well known at the time, 
" had entirely changed the purposes of the authorities. It is not necessary, 
"and, perhaps, would scarcely be in place, for me to recount these things." 

It Is as well known to others present as to me that, during that gloomy, 
eventful Sunday which succeeded the last battle on Saturday, the 30tli of 
August, the President and Mr. Stanton were overrun and overcome with 
statements that, unless McClellan was restored to command "the army would 
not fight." The.se statements came from men who did not mean it should 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 243 

fight, who could not in the exigency of the moment be displaced. The Presi- 
dent was able afterward to relieve McClellan and court-martial Porter. Had 
he lived, he would have seen justice to General Pope awarded also. It 
remains for me, while I live, to do my portion of that duty. 

There is one other point to which I wish to allude. During this very trial 
— during the very pendency of the trial — Fitz-John Porter said, in the presence 
of my informant, who is a man whom most of you know, and who is to-day 
in the employment of Congress, and whose word I would take as soon as I 
would most men's — though I told him I would not use his name, but I will 
give his sworn testimony, taken down within two minutes after the utterance 
was made — Fitz - -John Porter said in his presence : "I was not true to Pope, 
and there is no use in denying it." Mr. President, what was "not true to 
Pope " ? If he was not true to Pope, whom was he true to '? Being true to 
Pope was being true to the country ; "not true to Pope" was being a traitor 
to the country. Sir, "not true to Pope" meant the terrible fight of the 30th 
of August, with all the blood and all the horrors of that bitter day; "not 
true to Pope" meant the battle of Antietam, with its thousands of slain and 
its other thousands maimed; "not true to Pope" meant the first battle of 
Fredericksburg, with its 20,000 slain and maimed; "not true to Pope" cov- 
ered the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, and all the dreadful 
battles that followed. Had Fitz-John Porter been true to 1ms government, 
Jackson would have been destroyed on the 29th of August, and on the 30th 
the rebels could scarcely have offered any resistance to our victorious army. 
"Not true to Pope" meant 300,000 slain and 2,000,000,000 of additional dol- 
lars expended. 

Sir, I wish to put this on the record for all time, that it may remain. 
Let Fitz - John Porter thank God that he yet lives, and that he was not living 
at that time under a military government. I told General Pope, in the first 
interview I had with him, that I had but one fault to find in the whole con- 
duct of the campaign. He asked, "What is that?" Said I, "That you ever 
allowed Fitz-John Porter to leave the battle-field alive ! " 

In 1S77 Porter at last succeeded, by tlie most persistent 
effort, in obtaining the order for the re - examination of his case, 
and when Mr, Chandler re-entered the Senate in ISTO, he found 
himself confronting an organized movement to secure that officer's 
restoration to his old rank with full pay since the date of his 
dishonorable dismissal from the army. To this contemplated 
action he proposed to offer the most strenuous resistance, and tlie 
last volumes he drew from the Congressional Library were 
authorities he wished to consult in the preparation of his argu- 
ment against the reversal of the Porter finding. 



244 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

Mr. Chandler's positive opinions in the McClellan anv' Porter 
cases were shared by his colleagues of the Committee on tlie 
Conduct of the War of the Thirty -seventh Congress, and are 
justified by their elaborate reports covering the history of the 
Army of the Potomac from the battle of Ball's Bluif to the 
close of the Fredericksburg campaign. The Thirty -eighth Senate 
adopted a resolution continuing the existence of this committee, 
and, the House concurring, the old members, so far as they 
were in Congress, were- re -appointed. Senator Harding of Ore- 
gon took the place of Mr. Wright, and afterward Mr. Buckalew 
of Pennsylvania succeeded Mr. Harding. From the House, Mr. 
B. F. Loan of Missouri was appointed as the successor of Mr. 
Covode. Wm. Blair Lord was re-elected clerk and stenographer. 
This committee also devoted much of its time to the troubles 
of the Army of the Potomac. General Burnside had resigned 
the command because of a misunderstanding with the President, 
brought about by the interference of Gens. John Cochrane 
and John ]S"ewton, and General Hooker was appointed in his 
place, with General Halleck as commander-in-chief But Hal- 
leck disliked Hooker, and forced his resignation by overruling 
his plans and countermanding his orders, General Meade suc- 
ceeding. The committee- examined closely into this matter, 
reaching the conclusion that Hooker had not been fairly dealt 
with, and incidentally disposing of the false statement then cur- 
rent that that officer was intoxicated at the battle of Chancellorg- 
ville, and was defeated from that cause. The committee con- 
demned Hooker's removal, and Mr. Chandler firmly believed in 
his courage, patriotism and ability, and regarded him as the 
victim of circumstances. These facts make it an interesting 
coincidence that these two men — both bold, frank and positive 
in their respective spheres of public activity — should have died 
sudden and painless deaths within the same week. 

The committee did not believe that the selection of General 
Meade for the command of the Army of the Potomac was a 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 245 

fortunate one, and doubted liis ability to properly control liis 
subordinates. While there is no reference to the matter in their 
report on this subject, it is a fact that they recommended the 
removal of General Meade from command, and the re-instate- 
ment of Hooker. On the 4th of March, 1864, Mr. Chandler 
and Mr. Wa^e called upon the President, and told him that they 
believed it to be their duty, impressed as they were with the 
testimony the committee had taken, to lay a copy of it before 
him, and in behalf of the army and the country demand the 
removal of General Meade, and the appointment of some one 
more competent to command. The President asked what general 
they could recommend ; they said that for themselves they would 
be content with General Hooker, believing him to be competent, 
but not being advocates of any particular officer, they would say 
that if there was any one whom the President considered more 
competent, then let him be appointed. They added that " Con- 
" gress had appointed the committee to watch the conduct of 
" the war ; and unless this state of things should be soon changed 
" it would become their duty to make the testimony public 
" which they had taken, with such comments as the circum- 
" stances of the case seemed to require." General Meade was 
not removed, but General Grant was, within a week, given com- 
mand as general - in - chief , and assumed personal direction of 
the movements of the Army of the Potomac. 

During 1864 and 1865 the committee (besides considering 
many minor matters ) also investigated, with care : 

1. The disastrous assault upon Petersburg on July 30, 1864 ; 
their report exonerated General Burnside from the responsibility 
for the repulse, and held that the disaster was attributable to 
the interference with his plans of General Meade, whose course 
in the matter was severely censured. 

2. The unsuccessful expedition of 1864 up the Ped river in 
Louisiana, which the committee (Mr. Gooch dissenting) emphatic- 
ally condemned. 



24:0 ZACUARIAII CHANDLER. 

3. The lirst Fort Fisher expedition, tlie committee, in its 
report, appro\inii:: of General Butler's course in withdrawing from 
the projected assauU. 

During the incpiiry into tlie Petersburg fiasco, the sub -com- 
mittee were in session at General Grant's headquarters, and 
Mr. Chandler was liis guest, renewing there an early acquaintance 
and laying the foundations of their future close friendship. 
Some incidents of their intercourse ^vere characteristic. 

General Sherman had just reached Savannali, and the mystery 
of the objective point of his great '' nuirch to the sea" had thus 
been solved for the public. This memorable exploit was dis- 
cussed at length between General Grant and Mr. Chandler. The 
former said that the suggestion was Sherman's, and so was the 
entire plan of the campaign. Sherman had urged it for a long 
time before he (Grant) would consent, but finally the conditions 
w^ere ripe, and the order was given. General Grant added that 
Sherman was the only num in the army v/liom he would have 
entrusted this campaign to, as he was especially adapted for 
such a command, and said: "Congress ought to do something 
"for Sherman. lie deserves a great deal more credit and honor 
"than he has ever received." "What can we do for him?" 
asked Mr. Chandler. " Increase his rank," was the reply. " AVe 
have made you lieutenant general," responded Mr, Chandler, 
laughingly, " and I suppose we could make him a general, and 
thus put him over you." " Do it," said Grant, promptly. " If 
" he carries this campaign through successfully, do it. I would 
" rather serve under Sherman than any man I know." General 
Grant also said that when he received a dispatch that Thomas 
had attacked Hood, he felt that a great victory was already 
won. He added : " I did not have any anxiety about the 
" result ; when Thonuis attacks, a victory is sure. He is a slow 
"man, but lie is the surest man I know. Once in ipotion, he 
" is the hardest num to fight in this army. He never })re('ipi- 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. 247 

" tates a battle unless lie is all ready, and knows liis points, and 
" you may rest easy when lie attacks, for the next news will 
" be the enemy's rout. When Thomas once gets in motion the 
" rebels have not force enough to stop him." 

Upon the final adjournment of the Thirty - eighth Congress 
(on March 4, 1805) it continued the existence of the Committee 
on the Conduct of the War for ninety days, in order to afEord 
it time to finish its work. During this period it closed up some 
pending inquiries and prepared its final reports. Its last action 
was an examination into General Sherman's unauthorized and 
unfortunate negotiations with General Johnston, which the com- 
mittee disapproved and that oflicer's superiors promptly repu- 
diated. The final report of the committee bears the date of the 
22d of May, 1805, and its closing passages are as follows : 

Your committee, at the close of the labors in which the most of them 
have been engaged for nearly four years past, take occasion to submit a few 
general observations in regard to their investigations. They commenced them 
at a time when the government was still engaged in organizing its first great 
armies, and before any important victory had given token of its ability to 
crush out the rebellion by the strong hand of physical power. They have 
continued them until the rebellion has been overthrown, the so-called Con- 
federate government been made a thing of the past, and the chief of that 
treasonable organization is a proclaimed felon in the hands of our authorities. 
And soon the military and naval forces, whose deeds have been the subjects 
of our inquiry, will return to the ways of peace and the pursuits of civil life, 
from which they have been called for a time by the danger which threatened 
their country. Yet while we welcome those brave veterans on their return 
from fields made historical by their gallant achievements, our joy is saddened 
as we view their thinned ranks and reflect that tens of thousands, as brave as 
they, have fallen victims to that savage and infernal spirit which actuated 
those who spared not the prisoners at their mercy, who sought by midnight 
arson to destroy hundreds of defenseless women and children, and who hesi- 
tated not to resort to means and to commit acts so horrible that the nations 
of the earth stand aghast as they are told what has been done. It is a matter 
for congratulation that, notwithstanding the greatest provocations to pursue a 
different course, our authorities have ever treated their prisoners humanely 
and generously, and have in all rospects conducted this contest according to 
the rules of the most civilized warfare. . . . 



'24:6 ZACIIAHIAII CHANDLER. 

Your committee would refer to the record of their lahors to show tlie 
spitit aud purpose by which they have becQ governed in tlieir investigations. 
They have not sought to accomplish any purpose other than to elicit the truth ; 
to that end liave all their labors been directed. If they have failed at any time 
to accomplish that purpose, it has been from causes beyond their control. 
Their work is before the people, and by it they are willing to be judged. 

The volumes wliich contain the official record of the proceed- 
ings of the Committee on the Oonduct of the AYar are and 
always must be regarded as the most valuable single magazine 
of historical material relating to the Great Kebellion. They have 
been liberally used in the j^reparation of every important account 
of our civil strife yet published, and the men, who shall in the 
light of another century estimate the greatness and significance 
of that "throe of progress," will inevitably look in their pages 
to the graphic narratives of those who were parts of memorable 
movements and actors in famous battles as a means of informa- 
tion, and to the conclusions of those who prosecuted inquiries so 
zealously when the events were yet fresli in the memoi-y as a 
source of guidance. Infallibility is not a human attribute, and the 
work of this committee was not free from misapprehension and 
mistake. Time, Avhicli has shown some of it§ errors and will 
correct others, has also sustained the essential justice of its 
most important conclusions, which will stand unreversed on the 
pages of impartial history. 

But the chief value of the labors of this committee is not 
to be found in its collection of ricli materials for the future 
chronicler. To its unrecorded but jjotent influence upon the 
conduct of the war, adequate justice has not yet been done. Its 
unwearied investigations constantly exposed coi-rnption, incom- 
petence, and insul^oi-dination, and placed in thi; hands of the 
autliorities the means of discovering and punishing the knavi.sh, 
the weak, and the disloyal. Its activity was a perpetual ])rompter 
to energy, and a vigilant detective by the side of inefficiency 
aiul disaffection. As the result of its labors, the unsuccessful, 



THE WAR COMMITTEE. ii49 

the half-hearted, and the traitorous gave way to the able and 
the patriotic ; because of the knowledge of its relentless ques- 
tioning, indolent men were vigilant, and laxity was transformed 
into vigor. Its unremitting labors stayed up the hands of the 
War Secretary in the heaviest hours of his great task, and use- 
fully informed the counsels and shaped the decisions of the 
White House. If its every session had been permanently secret, 
and not a line of its proceedings existed as a public record, 
there would still remain an ineffaceable transcript of the results 
of its action in the correcting of mistakes of organization and 
that crushing of sham generalship which alone made final victory 
possible. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE VIGOKOUS I'KOSECUTION OF THE WAR. 

.,,|^^^<=^0 ASCRIPTION, taxation, and tlie reverses of the 
'^^-r Union arms in the summer of 1802 in Virginia and 
^|S elsewhere materially affected the political currents of 
^ the ensuing fall, and the tide of re -action against the 
war feeling reached its highest flood in the closing elections of 
that year. Horatio Seymour was then chosen Governor of Xew 
York ; the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois gave anti - Republican majorities, and ten of the 
principal Northern States, which in 1860 rolled up over 200,000 
Republican majority, gave over 35,000 to the Opposition, while 
the footings of their Congressional delegations showed a Demo- 
cratic majority of ten replacing a Republican preponderance of 
forty -one. In Michigan a successful effort was made to fuse all 
the " conservative " elements in a so - called " Union movement," 
which obtained some support from lukewarm Republicans and 
was thus enabled to manifest unusual strength. Its platform was 
dissent from "radical" measures in general, and the force of its 
attacks was centered upon Senator Chandler and his record, as 
representing the most aggressive type of Republicanism. He 
accepted this challenge unhesitatingly, and fought the campaign 
through without a hint at retraction or an apologetic word. Ho 
defended the "blood letter" and the "McClellan speech" on 
every stump ; he repeated before the people the bold utterances 
with which he had stirred the Senate; lie declared to every 
audience that his record he would not qualify by a hair's 
breadth, and that by it he was prej>ared to stand or fall ; and he 



"THE WAR SENATOR" 251 

denounced with unstinted severity the weakness of some of his 
critics and the disloyalty of others.* The brunt of the battle in 
his State fell upon him, and the vigor and courage of his per- 
sonal canvass attracted widespread attention, lie spoke in all 
the leading cities of Michigan during the campaign, and worked 
uninterruptedly until the day of election The result was the 
casting of 68,710 votes for the Ivepublican State ticket to 02,102 
for the "Union" candidates, and the choice of five Kepublicans 
out of the six members of Congress, and of a Legislature con- 
stituted as tollows: Senate — 18 Republicans and l-i Fusionists ; 
House— 03 Rep.iljlicans and 37 Fusionists. This Legislature, on 
assembling in January, 1803, re-elected Mr. Chandler to the 
Senate in accordance with the unmistakable wish of his party 
and the universal expectation. The most strenuous efforts were 
made to detach Republican support from him, but they failed 
utterly. In the caucus the vote was taken viva voce, and it was 
unanimous for Mr. Chandler. In tlie Legislature he received the 
support of the representatives of his party as well as that of 
one or two members chosen by the Fusionists. The Opposition 
selected a candidate of Republican antecedents, and its vote was 
divided as follows : James F. Joy, 45 ; Alpheus Felch, 2 ; Heze- 
kiah G. Wells, 1; Solomon L. Withey, 1. In his address of 
thanks before the nominating caucus, Mr. Chandler said : " I do 
"not claim my re-election as a personal tribute. It is, rather, a 
''tribute lo principle. It indicates that the patriotic sons of 
" Michigan stand firm in support of the government and a vigor- 
" ous prosecution of the war." 

* I pity the man who, in this hour of peril, stands back and says, "this is an aboHtion 
■war, and I won't go." . . . There are but two classes of men now in the United States, 
and there are no middle men ; these two classes are patriots and traitors. Between these 
two you must choose. A man might as well cast himself into the gulf that separated 
Dives from Lazarus as to stand out in this hour of tv\a\.— Speech at Ionia on September 6. 

It has taken time to educate us. If we had won certain victories the war would have 
been over, but the cause would have remained. The proclamation pronouncing emancipa- 
tion, for wliich God bless Abraham Lincoln, is educating the people, and soon we will be 
ready to go forward. . . . We can never secure a permanent peace until we strike a 
death-blow at the cause of the %vav.— Speech at Jackson on October 7. 



2j2 ZACIIAIIIAII CHANDLER. 

Not only did lie thus modestly ineiisiire the si<;iiiticaiice of 
his re-election, but he bent every energy to make that felt 
which the people meant. Strafford's motto of " Thorough " — 
although the spirit was that of Hampden and Pym and not. of 
tlie apostate Earl — expresses the fixity of purpose and the ardor 
of zeal with which he strove to make irresistible the blows of the 
Union against its assailants. Before the people, on the floor of 
the Senate, within the White House, at the private offices of 
the AVar Department, in committee - room, and as part of his 
daily intercourse with men of all ranks and classes, he urged the 
use of every resource for the defense of the nation and demanded 
the sternest punishment of those who had dared 

"to lay their hand upon the ark 
"Of her magnilicent and awful cause." 

As a Senator his vote was recorded for every important war 
measure, relating to the revenues, the finances, and the armies 
of the Union. Upon the great questions of public policy which 
bore so powerfully on the progress of the struggle he uniformly 
led his party. At the first Congressional session of the war he 
urged the employment of confiscation as a legitimate and effective 
weapon for checking and jmnishing rebellion ; the measure he 
introduced at that time proved to be too sweeping to receive 
an immediate enactment, but within a few months Congress did 
advance on this subject to his ground. When General Eutler 
declared that the slaves who fled to his camp from work upon 
the rebel intrench ments were "contraband of war," and reported 
his action to the authorities at AVashington and asked for instruc- 
tions, Mr, Cliandler was one of the first to appreciate the adroit 
wisdom of that epigrammatic construction of military law, and 
his co-operation with Secretary Cameron in urging the approval 
of General Jiutler's action upon the President and General Scott 
was very valuable and effective. Immediately after the battle of 



"THE WAR SENATOR." 253 

Bull Run lie, with Mr. Sumner and Mr. Hamlin, called upon 
Mr. Lincoln with a proposition to organize and arm the colored 
people. Mr. Chandler even then favored the full exercise of the 
President's constitutional war powers, and urged that they should 
be nFed, first, to set the slaves free; and, second, to make the 
slaves themselves aid the. work of abolishing slavery and main- 
taining the Union. He believed that this institution was the 
backbone of the South, that the war was brought on to save 
it from the civilizing tendencies of the age, and that among 
the first steps taken l)y the Federal government, when thus 
as.^ailed by slavery, should be the proclaiming of freedom to all 
bondsmen and the guaranteeing of the protection of the govern- 
ment to the free. He argued that such a policy, promptly 
declared, would produce chaos in the South, would subject the 
Confederate government to Hhe danger of local uprisings of the 
negroes, and would thus make victory easy. But the Adminis- 
tration was not prepared to take a step so far in advance of 
popular opinion, and for some months the prevailing policy was 
one which prohibited the soldiers of the Union from protecting 
or harboring fugitive slaves, and in some instances made slave- 
hunters of the troops. When General Fremont, on the 31st of 
August, issued his proclamation in Missouri, declaring free all 
slaves belonging to persons engaged in the rebellion, Mr. Chand- 
ler was among those who most heartily approved this step. The 
President was alarmed, as he feared the country was not ready 
for such an act, and greatly modified the Fremont proclamation, 
as he also did a still more sweeping order of General Hunter in 
the following May. Mr. Chandler's disappointment at this was 
extreme, but within a few months he saw emancipation resorted 
to by the Administration as a war measure, and a death-blow 
dealt to "the relic of barbarism." That part of the report for 
1861 of Simon Cameron as Secretary of War, which urged the 
most summary attacks upon the institution of slavery as the 



254 ZACIIARIAII CIIANDLEK. 

s\ii-ost means of dealing mortal blows to the rebellion, and which 
Mr. Linc(»lii snppressed, Mr. Chandler heartily endorsed, and 
every manifestation by Northern commanders of a disposition to 
make their armies defenders of the slave system aronsed his 
indignation. The act of March 13, 1SG2, prohibiting by an 
article of war the nse of the troops for the returning of fugitive 
slaves to their masters, he earnestly supported, and the act of 
April 10, 1S»)2, abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, 
was a measure in which he especially interested himself, and 
whose final passage he celebrated by an entertainment given to 
its most devoted friends at his rooms in the National Hotel of 
Washington. The abortive colonization schemes which were tried 
about this time, at Mr. Lincoln's urgent recommendation, Mr. 
Chandler privately opposed as utterly inadecpiate and as a mere 
diversion of force into useless channels, but for public reasons 
he made no open resistance to the experiment. For the laws of 
June 19, 18(>2, forever prohibiting slavery in the territories, and 
of June 28, 1804, repealing the fugitiv^e slave statutes, it need 
not be said that he lalwred with unflagging industry. 

Mr. Chandler was very active in . advocating the use of 
colored troops as soldiers, bemg months in advance of the 
Administration in this respect ; he urged this policy upon the 
authorities unsuccessfully for weeks, and then worked eai-nestly 
to secure legislation from Congress authorizing the enrollment 
and eidistment of negroes. This movement was so strenuously 
resisted at the capitol that in the end a compromise was effected 
upon a l)ill, which was approved on July 1(5, 1802, authoi'izing 
the receiving of colored men as laborers in the army to dig 
trenches and do other work of non-combatants. Ihit after the 
Emancipation Proclamation black men were accepted as soldiers 
by order of the President, and regularly enrolled and ])aid. Mr. 
Chandler always l)clieved that that proclamation and the enlist- 
ment of freedmen m the army were two of tlie most powciful 



"THE WAR SENATOR." 255 

blows at the rebellion, and often remarked, when talking upon 
the subject, that they were worth 300,000 men. While the con- 
troversy over this important step was unsettled, General Butler, 
at Kew Orleans, found himself in need of reinforcements, and 
was actually compelled to organize and arm several regiments of 
colored soldiers, whom he knew to be especially well adapted to 
the performance of a certain class of duties in that region which 
could not be done by soldiers from the North, who were not 
acclimated. This step on his part followed his definite refusal, 
under instructions from Washington, to j)ermit General Phelps to 
do the same thing ( that officer resigning for this very reason.) 
While the correspondence on this whole topic was in progress 
with the authorities. General Butler appealed to Senator Chand- 
ler, writing him long letters showing the sanitary necessity of 
having negro garrisons in some localities, and touching upon the 
other phases of the question. He also asked the Senator's aid 
in securing arms and etpiipments for these colored troops, and 
obtained from him valuable assistance in pushing on the requisi- 
tions at the War Department in defiance of official "red tape." 
On this general question Mr. Chandler said in the Senate, on 
June 28, 1864: 

I believe that this rebellion is to be crushed, is to be exterminated, and I 
believe that every man who favors it, whether he be a member of this body 
or a member of the Southern army, is to be crushed and to be exterminated, 
unless he repents. That is what I believe. ... I thank God the nation has 
risen to the point of using every implement that the Almighty and common 
sense have put in its hands to crush the rebellion. . . . We do not need 
another man from north of the Potomac. Let us bring the loyal men of the 
South in to put down treason in the South, and there are men enough and 
more than enough to do it. We have heard enough about not using black 
men to put down this rebellion. I would use every thing that God and nature 
had put in my hands to put down this rebellion ; but first I would use the 
black element, bring every negro soldier who can fight into the army. A 
uegro is better than a traitor. I say this advisedly. I consider a loyal negro 
better than a secession traitor, either in the North or the South. I prefer 
him anywhere and everywhere that you please to put him. A secession 



256 ZACIlARIAIf CHANDLER. 

traitor is beueiith a loyal uegro. I would let a loyal noirro vote ; I would let 
him testify ; I would let him tight ; I would let, him do any other good thing, 
aud I would exclude a secession traitor. 

The seizure of the rebel emissaries, Mason and Slidell, l)y 
Captain Wilkes, on the British steamer Trent, was heartily 
applauded by Mr. Chandler, and he opiDOsed with much earnest- 
ness their surrender at the demand of Great Britain. Mr. 
Seward's policy in the matter seemed to him to be humiliating, 
and the possibility of a second war, in case Captain Wilkes w^as 
sustained, he did not dread, believing that the nation would 
treble its military strength in the face of such a danger, that 
the South would suffer from an alliance with a country so long 
regarded as the hereditary foe of the American people, and that 
the end would be the conquest and annexation of the British 
American provinces. He w\as greatly incensed by Great Britain's 
prompt concession of belligerent rights to the South and by its 
blustering bearing in the Trent case, and at one time suggested 
a policy of non - intercourse with that power, which he regarded 
as an inveterate enemy. In later years he advocated the most 
vigorous pushing of " the Alabama claims," and at the time of 
the British war with Abyssinia offered in the Senate a resolution 
recognizing King Theodore as a " belligerent " in the general 
terms of the Queen's proclamation of May, 1861, in regard to 
the Confederacy. He never ceased to believe that the United 
States, in the settlement of its war claims with Great Britain, 
ought to have refused to accept anything less than the annexa- 
tion of the Canadas. 

Mr. Chandler in the Senate favored imposing severe penalties 
on the gold gambling in Wall street, which affected so injuriously 
the national credit. In the preparation of the internal revenue 
laws of 1862, imposing a large number of taxes and affecting 
vast interests, he gave exceedingly valuable aid, his own business 
experience and his familiarity with commercial details making 



"THE WAR SENATOR." 25T 

his suggestions practical in form and wise in scope. Every 
measure to secure the stringent enforcement of the laws for the 
punishment of treason received his hearty support, and his 
denunciation of traitors and their open or secret allies continued 
to be vigorous and unsparing.* His. industry time alone seemed 
to restrain, for his zeal was inexhaustible and his magnificent 
physical powers bore the tremendous strain unyieldingly. His 
public record during the four years of the war makes it possible 
to apply to him, without extravagance, Lord Clarendon's descrii> 
tion of Hampden : " He was of a vigilance not to be tired out or 
"wearied by the most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed 
" on by the most subtle or sharp, and of a personal courage 
" equal to liis best parts." 

The " little, nameless, nnremembered acts " of these days were 
of no slight aggregate importance and thoroughly illustrate the 
characteristics of the man. There was no reasonable service that 
he was not quick to render to any volunteer who applied to him 
for aid. A blue uniform gained for its wearer prompt admit- 
tance to his room and a careful hearing for any request. Eepeat- 
edly private soldiers saw him leave men of rank and influence 
to listen to their stories, and lay aside matters of pressing 
moment to act upon their complaints or relieve their distress.f 

* Extract from a debate in the Senate on April 12, 1864 : 

Mr. Powell, of Kentucky: The Senator from Michigan, if I understood him, said that 
I was now the friend of traitors ? 

Mb. Chandler : You did understand me properly. You have been the friend of 
traitors, and I voted to expel you, as a traitor, from this body. 

Mr. Powell : Do I understand you to say that I am now the friend of traitors and 
of treason ? 

Mk. Chandler: You co-operated with traitors, and I have never known you to cast 
a vote that was not in favor of rebelhon. 

t It is exceedingly gratifying to witness the marked attention Mr. Chandler bestows on 
soldiers. One day I happened to be in his room, when a major - general and a senator 
came in. Shortly after a sprightly young soldier came to the door. When about to enter, 
the young man hesitated to interrupt their conversation, but Mr. Chandler at once gave 
his attention to the soldier, who, on being asked to take a seat and tell what he desired, 
said he was a paroled prisoner and wished a furlough home, and that he had been told 
that all he had to do was to apply to him and he would be sure to get it. Mr Chandler 
immediately took his papers and secured the furlough for him..— Washington letter of 1S6S. 

17 



258 ZACIIAKIAH CHANDLER. 

He visited the hospitals to seek out Michigan men ■whom he 
could help, and to see that they were properly provided for, 
wliile tlicir apj)lications for furloughs and for discharges, if 
entrusted to his care, were so pushed as to obtain prompt action 
from the authorities in sj^ite of routine and official tardiness. 
He advanced large sums of money to help destitute and invalid 
soldiers homeward,* or to aid the friends of fallen or wounded 
men upon their melancholy errands. Upon all occasions he was 
especially attentive to tlie humblest applicants, and the case of 
the private soldier in distress and need touched his sympathies 
the most quickly. His Avas a familiar figure in all the depart- 
ments, often accomp:mied with a squad of sick, crippled, even 
ragged, veterans, in search of delayed furloughs, or of arrears of 
pay, or of the medical examinations preceding invalid discharges, 
or of some service which " red tape " had delayed. In the words 
of one who possessed abundant opportunities for obtaining knowl- 
edge, " This could be said of Mr. Chandler to a greater extent 
"than of any other public man I ever saw^, that he would spare 
"no pains in doing even little things for men who were of the 
"smallest consequence to one in his position. He w^ould take 
"great trouble in hunting up minor matters for enlisted men, 
" and this it was that made him so popular among the soldiers." 
His activity in their behalf was riot limited by State lines; he 
answered any appeals that came to him, although he was espe- 
cially prompt and vigilant in helping the " Michigan boys." f 

*Mr. Chandler said that during the late war, while hi^ was in Washinjjton, he loaned 
our sol liers several thousands of dollars, in small sum-5 of from S2 to $10 each, but that 
the whole amount was re;iaid to hi n wit'i the exception of about $10, and he was satisfied 
that the poor m^n who owed him that small amount had given their lives for their country. 
—Hon. M. S. Brewer in the Hr>iise of Representatives, Jan. SS, 18S0. 

•f This tribute comes from a well-known officer of the Michigan volunteer regiments: 

Detroit, Februaiy 3, 1880. 

Could all the acts of kindness and aid rendered by Senator Chandler to the soldiers 
of Michigan, their families and friends, during the war, and especially to those who filled 
the rank-i. be gathered to;? 'Iher and written out, the volumes that contained them would 
be large and numerous. No soldier, however humble, ever applied to him, when in distress 



"THE WAR SENATOR." 259 

At the War Department Mr. Chandler was as well known 
as (and ^vas reputed to be scarcely less powerful than) the Sec- 
retary himself. Mr. Stanton's brusqueness never daunted him, 
and few stood upon such terms of privileged intercourse with 
that no less irascible than great man. Eepeatedly he elbowed 
his way through the crowded ante -chamber of the Secretary's 
office, pushed past protesting orderlies, strode np to Mr. Stan- 
ton's private desk, and obtained by emphatic personal application 
some order which subordinates could not grant in a case need- 
ing prompt action.* Where other men would have encountered 
rebuff he rarely failed. In connection with this phase of his 
public activity these letters are of interest : 

Detroit, Mich., July 29, 1863. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

Dhar Sir: Brigadier - General Richardson, of this State, is reported as 
being absent from duty without leave. This is not true. He is absent on sick 

or trouble, that he did not receive a patient hearing and, if possible, speedy aid. No sol- 
dier's wife, father, mother, or other kin ever wrote him a letter that was not answered. 
To these facts there are thousands who can testify to-day, and many thousands more who 
could do so were they not in thyir graves. 

In those dark days he was always sanguine of the final triumph of our armies, and 
he always assured the soldiers of his positive convictions that in the end they would be 
victorious. None except those who had experience can over know what cheerful assurances 
and hopeful words from those high in authority did to nerve men for the work of severe 
campaigns. 

The trials and fatignes of army life, and the uncertainty of the final results, were 
lessened vastly by the assuring words of bravo, indomitable men lilio Zachariah Chandler. 
A.11 honor to his memory, as also to the memory of his great associates in hich places 
during those memorable days ! n. a. algek. 

+ This anecdote is related by a prominent Michigan officer: I accompanied Senator 
Chandler onoe to the War Department to secure the re-instatement of a paymaster who, 
it had,b33:i clearly ascertained, had been unjustly dismissed. The papers were in the pos- 
session of the proper bureau, and action had been promised, but was delayed. A great 
bDJy of eagar applicants were gathered about the Secretary's door, which was guarded by 
two sentries with crossed bayonets. He pushed rapidly through the mass of people to the 
entrance o£ the private office, where the sentinel said, "The Secretary is very busy, Mr. 
Senator. " "I know he is," was Mr. Chandler's response, and laying a hand on each bayo- 
net he pushel them up over our heads, opened the door, and we wore m BIr. Stanton s 
presence. Once there, he commenced a vigorous denunciation of the tardiness of the 
Department, upbraided the Secretary because no action had yet been taken in ihe case 
according t^ promise, and astonished me by the earnestness of his criticisms. Mr. Stantou 
heard him pleasantly, said when he slopped, ' Are you all through. Chandler?" and then 
gave the order we needed. 



200 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 



leave, .and is not able to join his command. Will you not, in accordance 
with the wishes of the wliolc delegation, assign him to the command of 
Michigan soldiers, now being raised ? His presence here, and the assurance 
that he is to command, will greatly stimulate enlistments. We are proud of. 
him as one of the best lighting generals of the army. -Very truly yours, 

Z. CHANDLER. 

Detroit, July 31, 1862. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

Siu : There is a fine company of ninety -five splendid men guanWng three 
rebel prisoners at Mackinac. Would it not be well to put those rascals in 
some tobacco warehouse or jail and scftid these troops where they are needed ? 
General Terry would like a command in some other division than the one he 
is in. Can you not accommodate him ? The soldiers at Mackinac are anxious 
for active service and are well drilled. Very truly yours, 

Z. CHANDLER. 

Detroit, Aug. 9, 18G2. 
Adjutant- General Thomas. 

De.\r Sir: Arc the boys of the Michigan First (Bull Run prisoners) 
exchanged yet ? I promised them it should be done at once, and now find 
them enlisting again under the suppositiori that it has been done. The list is 
with the Secretary of War. Our quota is full, and our blood is up. They 
were yesterday paying |10 for a chance to enter some of the regiments. Very 
truly yours, Z. CHANDLER. 

Detroit, Aug. 28, 1862. 
Hon. Wm. A. Howard. 

De.\r Sir : Will you say from me to the Secretary of War that I deem 
it of vital importance that some one be authorized to open and examine rebel 
correspondence passing through the Detroit po.stoffice? Mr. Smith (of the post- 
ofiice) informs me that letters come through directed to rebels at \^•indsor. 
Truly youis, Z. CHANDLER. 

Detroit, Nov. 15, 1863. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

Dear Sir: I telegraphed you to-night to send heavy guns and aninui- 
nition to the lakes. The reason was this: Upon examination I found that 
we could improvise a navy in about two hours which could cope with any 
rebel armament which could be placed upon the lakes, if we had big guns. But 
my mvestigation furnished one 68 -pounder, condemned, and four 32 -pounders, 
without powder, at Erie : and this was our whole armament on the lakes, 
except one 32 -pounder upon the Michigan, and a few 6, 10 and 12 -pounders. 
We must have guns of large calibre at each of the principal ports. If you 
cannot spare eleven -inch guns immediately send us some eight -inch or some 



"THE WAR SENATOR." 2<)1 

old 68 -pounders, with ammunition. A tug, costing not over $30,000, with 
one eleven -inch gun on board and a crew of twenty men, could destroj^ a 
million dollars' worth of property on the lakes every twenty -four hours, and 
we would be powerless. She would sink the Michigan with one judiciously- 
placed shell. We are not alarmed, but we want big guns and must have them. 
The lake marine is scarcely second to the ocean in tonnage and value, and it 
must be protected. We had no idea of our defenses until the late scare.» 
Truly yours, Z- CHANDLER. 

Mr. Chandler's influence with public men and in the private 
councils of the nation's leaders at Washington was throughout 
the war always invigorating. From the very outset, and while 
the patriotic instinct of the North was "still, as it were, in the 
gristle and not yet hardened into the bone," he urged upon the 
executive authorities summary measures, and the striking of hard 
and quick blows. He advised them to arrest traitors while their 
treason was still in the bud. He urged them to make early and 
incessant attacks on the enemy, and counseled implicit reliance 
on the devotion and loyalty of the North. The Union cause 
saw no hour so dark that the eye of his courage could not pene- 
trate its gloom; the rebellion won no victory that shook his 
absolutely "dauntless resolution." Every suggestion of peace 
except on the basis of Freedom and the national supremacy he 
denounced. Every hint of conciliating armed traitors he scouted 
as, in Hosea Biglow's phrase, mere " tryin' squirt -guns on the 
infernal Pit." To the real statesmanship of that period he thus 
gave expression in a public dinner at Washington early in 
1863: "We must accept no compromise ; a patched - up peace 
will be followed by continued war and anarchy." He chafed 
like a caged lion before half - heartedness, imbeciHty and delay. 
His sincerity and his earnestness revived the • discouraged and 
aroused hope, and his strong convictions inspired men of weaker 
moral fibre with something of his own inflexibility. He never 
hesitated to use plain words in dealing with the nation's enemies, 
he never lost faith, and he never admitted the possibility of 



^<^ii ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

defeat. At tlie TV'liite House his visits were ever welcome, his 
advice received, and the virility of his understanding and the 
fervor of his patriotism recognized. Mr. Chandler appreciated to 
the full extent the innate strength of Abraham Lincohi's remark- 
able character and its rare loftiness, and, different as were their 
dispositions and widely divergent as often were their oj)inions, he 
never lost confidence in the President's aims and never ceased to 
be one of his trusted counselors. Many features of executive 
policy he condemned plainly and boldly to the President him- 
self, but frankness and sincerity prevented his criticisms from 
becoming unpalatable, and Mr. Lincoln often acknowledged his 
indebtedness to the practical wisdom and the tireless zeal of the 
Michigan Senator. 

Cecil said to Sir Walter Kaleigh, "I know that you can toil 
terribly." This Mr. Chandler did through those eventful years. 
His labor was without cessation. The great demands upon the 
energies of the public man were equaled by appeals for private 
effort which he would not decline, and in every channel of 
profital)le work for the Union cause he made his strong will and 
his aggressive vitality felt. Industry, so unusual and efficient, 
multiplied the power of his Roman firmness, and these qualities, 
guided by his strong understanding, high courage, sincerity of 
conviction, and the ardor of his patriotism, made him a leader 
of men in years when leadership without strength was impossible. 
His impress is upon the events of that era, and of the war for 
Emancipation and the Union he could say with Ulysses, " I 
am part of all that I have met." Through the tempest of civil 
strife his strong spirit battled its way unflinchingly to the goal, 
and title was fitly besto'wed in the people's knighting of Zaclia- 
riah Chandler as "The Great War Senator." 




CHAPTEE XY. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

'HE Republican reverses of the fall of 1862 were not 
repeated in 1863. Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the anti- 
draft riots in New York, and the formal acceptance of 
Yallandigham as a trusted party leader by the Democracy 
stimulated and strengthened the Union spirit of the North, and 
the State elections of that year were emphatic endorsements of 
the party of freedom and of its policy. The political verdicts of 
the spring of 1861: were equally gratifying to the friends of lib- 
erty and the advocates of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and, 
with the accession of General Grant to the command of the 
Union armies and his "advance all along the line," it became 
evident that nothing but discord among the Republicans could 
deprive them of a sweeping victory in the presidential election. 
The masses of that party were unequivocally in favor of Mr. 
Lincoln's re - nomination ; the common people saw one of them- 
selves in the White House and fully met his firm trast in them 
with an answering confidence. But among men of influence 
within the Republican ranks there was an exceedingly earnest 
opposition to his second candidacy. Some of this sprang from 
rival aspirations; more of it from disaiDpointed ofiice - seeking and 
from personal pique; but there was outside and above such con- 
siderations a strong feeling, entirely disinterested in origin and 
honorable in character, and held by thousands of sincere men, 
that the President was unduly conservative in policy and that a 
man of more aggressive temperament ought to be elected in his 
stead. There were also not a few experienced politicians who 



^^'■^ ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER 

regarded the personal opposition to Mr. Lincoln as sufficiently 
formidable to jeopard party success, and who were inclined to 
think that the selection of some candidate who was not identi- 
fied with the existing Administration, and thus would not be 
compelled to defend its acts, was demanded on the ground of 
superior "availability." The anti- Lincoln wing of the party at 
that time included such men as Mr. Chase and Mr. Greeley, was 
represented by many of the leading newspapers, including the 
entire New York press except the Times, and counted among 
its especially active members not a few of the most earnest and 
devoted of the original Abolitionists. 

In this chaotic condition of party sentiment a call appeared 
(in April, ISG-i) addressed "To the Eadical Men of the Nation," 
and requesting them to meet by representatives in convention at 
Cleveland, O., on May 31. Those of its signers who were best 
known were B. Gratz Brown, Lucius Kobinson, John Cochrane, 
Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George B. Cheever, 
James Eedpath, Wendell Phillips and Emil Pretorious. Its tone 
will appear from this paragraph: 

The imbecile and vacillating policy of the present Administration in the 
conduct of the war, being judt weak enough to waste its men and means to 
provoke the enemy, but not strong enough to conquer the reb(.'llion — and its 
treachery to justice, freedom and genuine democratic principles in its plan of 
reconstruction, whereby the honor and dignity of the nation have been sacri- 
ficed to conciliate the still -existing and arrogant slave power, and to further 
the ends of unscrupulous partisan ambition — call in thunder tones upon the 
lovers of justice and their country to come to the rescue of the imperiled 
nationality and the cause of impartial and universal freedom threatened with 
betrayal and overthrow. 

The way to victory and salvation is plain. Justice must l)e throned in 
the seats of national legislation, and guide the executive will. The things 
demanded, and which we ask you to join us to render sure, are the immedi- 
ate extinction of slavery throughout the whole United States by Congressional 
action, the absolute equality of all men before the law without regard to 
race or color, and such a plan of reconstruction as shall conform entirely to 
the policy of freedom for all, placing the political power alone in the hands 
of the loyal, and executing with vigor tJie law for eonfiscating the property of 
the rebels. 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 265 

This document was widely published, and the Kew York 
Tribune in advance approved the calling of this convention, 
although it did not in the end support its action. The call was 
answered by about 350 jDersons from fifteen States; while very 
few of them were men of more than limited reputation, yet 
they made up a body representing wide - spread convictions 
strongly and sincerely held. Ex -Governor W. F. Johnston of 
Pennsylvania was the temporary and Gen. John Cochrane of 
New York the permanent presiding officer of the convention. 
It nominated Jolm C. Fremont for President, and General Coch- 
rane for Vice - President, and adopted a platform exceedingly 
radical in terms, including declarations in favor of unconditional 
emancipation, a one- term presidency, the Monroe doctrine, and 
the wholesale confiscation of the property of the rebels. Two 
letters were received by it which at the time produced a strong 
impression. In one of them, Lucius Robinson, then Comptroller 
of New York, severely condemned " a weak Executive and Cabi- 
net," and urged the nomination of General Grant, " a man who 
has displayed the qualities which give all men confidence." In 
the second, Wendell Phillips attacked a Republican administra- 
tion with that polished invective which had made him one of 
the most formidable assailants of the slave power. He wrote: 

For three years the Administration has lavished money without slint and 
drenched the land in blood, and it has not yet thoroughly and heartily struck 
at the slave system. Confessing that the use of this means is indispensable, 
the Administration has used it just enough to irritate the rebels and not 
enough to save the state. In sixty days after the rebellion broke out the 
Administration suspended habeas corpus on the plea of military necessity — 
justly. For three years it has poured out the treasure and blood of the 
country like water. Meanwhile slavery was too sacred to be used ; that was 
saved lest the feelings of the rebels should be hurt. The Administration 
weighed treasure, blood, and civil liberty against slavery, and, up to the 
present moment, has decided to exhaust them all before it uses freedom 
heartily as a means of battle. ... A quick and thorough reorganization of 
States on a democratic basis — every man and race equal before the law — is 
the only sure way to save the Union. I urge it, not for the black man's sake 



200 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

alone, but for ours — for the nation's sake. Against such recognition of the 
blaclvs ^Ir. Lincoln stands picdged by prejudice and avowal. ^len say, if we 
elect him he may change liis views. Possibly. But three years have been a 
long time for a man's education in such hours as these. The nation cannot 
afford more. At any rate the constitution gives this summer an opportunity 
to make President a man fully educated. I prefer that course. 

The Administration, therefore, I regard as a civil and military failure, 
and its avowed policy ruinous to the North in every point of view. 31 r. Lin- 
coln may wish the end — peace and freedom — but he is wholly unwilling to 
use the means which can secure that end. If Mr. Lincoln is re-elected 1 do 
not expect to see the Union reconstructed in my day, unless on terms more 
disastrous to liberty than even disunion would be. If I turn to General Fre- 
mont, I see a man whose first act would be to use the freedom of the negro 
as his weapon ; I see one whose thorough loyalty to democratic institutions 
without regard to race, whose earnest and decisive character, whose clear- 
sighted statesmanship and rare military ability jMstify my confidence that m 
liis hands all will be done to save the state that foresight, skill, decision, and 
statesmanship can do. 

Generals Fremont and Cochrane promptly accepted tlie nom- 
inations thus tendered them. General Fremont resigned his 
commission in the army before doing so, and in his letter of 
acceptance accused the Administration of " incapacity and self- 
ishness," of " managing the war for personal ends," of giving to 
the country " the abuses of a military dictation without its unity 
of action and vigor of execution," and of " feebleness and want 
of principle " in its dealings with other powers. He further 
vindicated the Cleveland action by declaring that, "if Mr. Lin- 
" coin had remained faithful to the prin('ij)les he was elected to 
" defend, no schism could have been created," and added : " If 
" the convention at Baltimore will nominate any man whose past 
"life justifies a well-grounded confidence in his fidelity to our 
" cardinal principles, there is no reason why there should be any 
" division among the really patriotic men of the country." There 
was a lack of any popular response to this demonstration, and 
it at once appeared— and, in fact, this was the sum of the 
original expectations of its shrewder promoters — that this move- 
ment was only formidable as a rallying pomt for any serious 
disaffection which might spring up in the future. 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 207 

The " Union National " convention assembled at Baltimore 
on June 7, with every State, except those still wholly in posses- 
sion of the rebels, represented upon its floor. It adopted a 
platform denouncing any peace by compromise, endorsing the 
Administration, and demanding the abolition of slavery by con- 
stitutional amendment. Abraham Lincoln was re -nominated for 
the Presidency, receiving every vote save that of the delegation 
of Missouri radicals who supported General Grant, and Andrew 
Johnson was on the first ballot nominated for Yice - President as 
the representative of the Union men of the South. The response 
of the masses and the leading papers of the Republican organiza- 
tion to this action was prompt and hearty ; but, notwithstanding 
this encouraging fact, the political horizon grew rapidly darker. 
General Grant was in that summer fighting a series of bloody 
battles on and about the banks of the James, whose immediate 
results were indecisive, the attendant steady reduction of Lee's 
available force not being then apparent at .the North. In like 
manner, Sherman was forcing his way through the mountainous 
regions between Chattanooga and Atlanta, winning no great vic- 
tories and losing thousands of men ; the mortal effects of his 
blows at the rebels are evident now, but could not be seen then. 
General Early, in July, swept down the Shenandoah and over the 
Potomac, burning Chambersburg and threatening the defenses of 
Washington, finally making good his retreat. In the face of this 
military situation, so encouraging to discontent and so calculated 
to invite criticism, the premium on gold rose rapidly to its 
highest war point. This disastrous depreciation of the paper 
money of the government was materially helped by the unex- 
pected resignation, on June 30, of Secretary of the Treasury 
Salmon P. Chase. Differences of opinion as to some details of 
department management were assigned as the cause of this step, 
but its real origin was much deeper, and Mr. Chase's course was 
universally ascribed, and was undoubtedly due, to lack of sym- 



2<'S ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

patlij with and confidence in the Administration. The effect of 
a change in so important a position at such a critical moment 
was profound, and it gave a powerful stimulus to Republican 
disaffection. This was followed by the abortive peace negotia- 
tions at Niagara Falls with C. C. Clay, J. P. Holcombe and G. 
N. Sanders. That this was a crafty scheme to place the Admin- 
istration in a false position before both the North and the South 
cannot now be doubted. It failed to yield all that its projectors 
hoped, but it did ensnare Mr. Greeley most disagreeably, and it 
had the effect of furnishing the enemy with grounds for charg- 
ing the President with being " hostile to peace except on 
impossible conditions." It also materially augmented the public 
restlessness and deepened the vague apprehensions which natur- 
ally sprang from such exhibitions of cross - purposes among the 
leaders of the national cause. Another event followed which was 
of still graver moment: 

The proljlem of the reconstruction of the Southern States 
after the defeat of the rebel armies was from the outset sur- 
rounded with grave difficulties, and the views held upon this 
subject by the ablest Republicans were diverse and conflicting. 
Bills and resolutions embodying various theories of reconstruction 
were presented in Congress early in the war, but nothing was 
done witli them, and no definite policy was fixed by enactment 
or even determined upon in private consultations. On Dec. 8, 
1863, and in connection with the transmission to Congress of his 
third annual message, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation offering 
amnesty to all rebels (with a few conspicuous exceptions) who 
should take an oath of loyalty, and declaring that whenever, in 
any of the seceded States, persons to the number of not less 
than one -tenth of tlie votes cast in such States at the presi- 
dential election of 1860, having first taken and abided by the 
prescribed oath, should re-establish a State government, republi- 
can in form and recognizing the permanent freedom of the 



THE ELECTION OF 18G4. 209 

slaves, it should "be recognized as the true government of the 
State." This plan Mr. Lincoln explained and defended at length 
in the message, and under it provisional governments were soon 
organized in Louisiana and Arkansas, and application was made 
for the admission of their Senators and Representatives to Con- 
gress. The President's action in this respect did not receive 
congressional sanction and was not endorsed bj the majority of 
his supporters at the capitol. Many held that the subject was one 
which was wholly within the control of the legislative branch of 
the government, and that his proclamation was itself an unwar- 
rantable assumption of authority by the Executive. Others 
objected strenuously to the "one -tenth clause," as oligarchical in 
tendency and certain to leave the real advantages of position 
within easy reach of the disloyal majority in any State thus recon- 
structed. As a rule those who opposed Mr. Lincoln's scheme 
favored establishing provisional governments in the South until 
there should spring up a loyal majority, which could be safely 
trusted with political power. Congress, therefore, referred the 
message and proclamation to special committees, refused to recog- 
nize the Louisiana and Arkansas governments, and passed on the 
last day of the session a reconstruction act differing radically in 
terms from the President's plan. Its bill provided that provisional 
governors should be appointed with the consent of the Senate, 
that an enrollment of white male citizens should be made when 
armed resistance ceased in any State, and that when a majority of 
the citizens so enrolled took the oath of allegiance the loyal 
people should be entitled to elect delegates to a convention to 
establish a State government ; upon the adoption of an anti- 
slavery constitution by such a convention it was to be certified to 
the President, who, with the assent of Congress, was to recognize 
the government thus established as "the lawful State govern- 
ment." This measure the President defeated by withholding his 
signature. On July 8, 1864, he issued a second proclamation upon 



270 ZAClIARIAll CHANDLER. 

the subject, setting forth that he had not signed this bill because 
"less than one hour" intervened between its passage and the 
adjournment of Congress, and because he was not ready by its 
approval to be inexorably committed to this or any other specitic 
plan of reconstruction which would set aside the qicasi - govern- 
ments of Louisiana and Arkansas and thus repel their citizens 
from further efforts in the same direction. He added that he 
was not yet prepared to admit the "constitutional competency 
of Congress to abolish slavery in the States,". aJthougii he did 
earnestly desire that it should cease through the adoption of a 
constitutional amendment. The proclamation closed by declaring 
that he was satisfied with the terms of the bill, and by pledging 
the hearty co-operation of the Executive with all who might 
avail themselves of the method therein laid down to return to 
their places in the Union. In response to this proclamation, 
which treated the process of reconstruction as a matter of execu- 
tive discretion merely, there was published early in August a 
vigorously worded and cogently argued manifesto, addressed " To 
the Supporters of the Government," and signed by Senator Ben- 
jamin F. Wade and Re^jresentative Henry Winter Davis, as 
chairmen of the committees of their respective houses upon the 
status of the rebel States. This document commenced with the 
declaration that its authors had " read without surprise, but not 
without indignation," the President's proclamation, and proceeded 
as follows: / 

The President, by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the 
electoral votes of the rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition. 
If those votes turn the balance in his favor, is it to be supposed tliat his 
competitor, defeated by such means, will acquiesce ? If the rebel mnjority 
assert their supremacy in those States, and send votes which elect an enemy 
of the government, will we not repel his claims ? And is not that civil war 
for the presidency inaugurated by the votes of rebel States ? Seriously 
impressed with those dangers. Congress, "the proper constitutional authority," 
formally declared that there are no State governments in the rebel States, and 
provided for their erection at a proper time ; and both the Senate and IIouso 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 271 

of Representatives rejected the Senators and Representatives chosen under the 
authority of what the President calls tlie free constitution and government of 
Arkansas. The President's proclamation "holds for naught" tliis judgment, 
and discards tlie authority of the Supreme Court and strides headlong toward 
the anarchy his proclamation of the 8th of December inaugurated. If electors 
for President be allowed to be chosen in either of those States, a sinister light 
will be cast on the motives which induced the President to "hold for naught" 
the will of Congress rather than his governments iu Louisiana and Arkansas. 
That judgment of Congress which the President defies was the exercise of an 
authority exclusively vested in Congress by the constitution to determine what 
is the established government in a State, and in its own nature and by the 
highest of judicial authority binding on all other departments of the govern- 
ment. ... A more studied outrage on the legislative authority of the 
people has never been perpetrated. Congress passed a bill ; the President 
refused to approve it, and then by proclamation puts as much of it in force 
as he sees fit, and proposes to execute those parts by oflicers unknown to the 
laws of the United States and not subject to the confirmation of the Senate ! 
The bill directed the appointment of provisional governors by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate. The President, after defeating such a law, 
proposes to appoint without law, and without tlie advice and consent of the 
Senate, military governors for the rebel States ! He has already exercised this 
dictatorial usurpation in Louisiana, and he defeated the bill to prevent its 
limitation. . . . 

The President has greatly presumed on the forbearance which the sup- 
porters of his administration have so long practiced, in view of the arduous 
conflict in which we are engaged, and the reckless ferocity of our political 
o])ponents. But he must understand that our support is of a cause and not 
of a man ; that the authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected, 
and that the whole body of the Union men of Congress will not submit to be 
impeached by him of rash and unconstitutional legislation ; and if he wishes 
our support, he must confine himself to his executive duties — to obey and 
execule, not make the laws — to suppress by arms armed rebellion, and leave 
political reorganization to Congress. 

If the supporters of the government fail to insi^-t on this, they become 
responsible for the usurpations which they fail to rebuke, and arc justly 
liable to the indignation of the people, whose rights and security, committed 
to their keeping, they sacrifice. Let them consider the remedy for these 
usurpations, and, having found it, fearlessly execute it ! 

Tlie damaging force of tins attack was nndonbted. Mr. 
Wade was a veteran of the anti- slavery "Old Guard/' and was 
known throngli the North to be as sturdy, true and lionest as 
lie was '■ radical " in his Eepublicanism No man sat in the 



272 ZACilAlUAH CHANDLER. 

House who surpassed — but few uieii then in public life equaled 
— Henry Winter Davis in mental vi<>or, in brilliant aeconiplisli- 
ments, and in moral fearlet>sness. Originally sent to Congress by 
the Maryland '' Americans," it was his vote which elected Mr. 
•Pennington to the Speakership in 185!); to the formal censure of 
that act by his Legislature he replied by telling the men who 
voted for it to take their message back to their masters, for 
only to their masters, the people, would he reply. He made a 
magnificent fight against secession in his State, and waged there 
a still more gallant battle for emancipation, winning both. In 
the House he spoke always with force, often with impassioned 
eloquence, and the Hepublican ranks contained no champion 
more ardent in patriotism or more firmly attached to the funda- 
mental principles of Freedom. The formal uniting of these two 
men, both able, influential and unquestionably sincere, in stric- 
tures so severe upon the President, materially invigorated the 
"radical" opposition to the Baltimore ticket, increased Republi- 
can discouragement, and furnished the Opposition with additional 
ground for accusing the President of the gross use of arbitrary 
power. The series of events thus recapitulated naturally gave to 
the action of the Cleveland convention a fresh importance, and 
by the fall of 1864 it had become a factor of moment in the 
political calculations of the year. 

Greatly encouraged by the evident demoralization of the 
dominant party, the Democrats held their national convention at 
Chicago on August 29. Its platform in effect declared the war 
" a failure," and its ticket consisted of George B. McClellan, 
representing war without vigor, and George H. Pendleton, repre- 
senting peace by compromise. The most conspicuous figure on 
its floor was Clement L. Vallandigham, a banished traitor j^osi/uj 
as a martyr, and the sedition which was thinly disguised in its 
deliberations was boldly shouted to cheering mobs about its hall 
and in front of the great hotels which its delegates thronged. 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 273 

The character and action of this body made clear the issues of 
1S64; in Mr. Seward's apt language, the people were called upon 
to decide whether they would have "McClellan and Disunion or 
Lincoln and Union." To make the latter the accepted alterna- 
tive was impossible without complete Republican harmony, and 
to restore that fully and promptly was plainly a matter of the 
first importance. This task was undertaken by Mr. Chandler, 
whose relations with all parties peculiarly fitted him for the 
work. He was a pronounced " radical," and had steadfastly 
opposed many features of Mr, Lincoln's policy ; * but honest dis- 
agreement of opinion had not impaired his full confidence in 
the man, and that firm grasp upon the practical aspects of all 
political questions, which was one of his marked characteristics 
then as always, prevented him from putting in jeopardy essen- 
tials by unduly magnifying differences as to details. To the 
wisdom of renominating Mr. Lincoln he assented, and his elec- 
tion he believed necessary to the j)reservation of the government. 
Witli Mr. Wade he was on terms of the closest intimacy ; both 
Mr. Davis and General Fremont wei'e his personal friends ; and 
his record and public attitude gave him a claim upon the atten- 
tion of the " radicals " everywhere. His qualifications as a 
mediator were thus numerous and apparent, and were rounded out 
by his political experience and sagacity. 

Mr. Chandler commenced work bj visiting Mr. Wade at his 

* Mr. Chandler explained the ground of his opposition to the ten per cent, loyal basis 
plan of reconstruction proposed by Mr. Lincoln for the admission of Louisiana and Arkan- 
sas. There were not more than seven or eight members of the Senate with him at the 
beginning of the session on that question, although there was a large majority before its 
close. The Democrats did not believe in this ten per cent, doctrine, and they voted with 
those who did not believe in admitting those States without guarantees. This admission 
was finally prevented by a night of filibustering. Only six Republicans remained and voted 
during that night. The result, however, proved that those six men were right, and that 
Mr. Lincoln and the others were wrong. If Louisiana and Arkansas had been admitted, 
then we would have been compelled to admit all the other States in the same way, and 
to-day we would have eleven rebel States in the Union. Those two States, Louisiana and 
Arkansas, had become the most intensely rebel of all the States that were in rebellion.— 
Report of his speecli before the Republican caucus at Lansing on Jan. 6, 1809. 
18 



274 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

home in Ohio, being accoinj^anied thither by his intimate friend 
and adviser, the lion. George Jerome of Detroit. The Ohio 
senator's vigorous common sense was Mr. Chandler's ally in tlie 
long interview that followed, and it only required a thorough 
review of the situation to convince him that, if Lincoln was 
defeated, the Union cause, and not an individual, would be the 
sufferer. Mr. Wade, however, urged that Mr. Lincoln himself 
should make some sacrifices of opinion and preference in the 
face of the common danger, that the " radical " element of the 
Republicans was entitled to more considerate treatment at his 
hands, and that, at least, his Cabinet, which was wholly within 
his control, should not contain men who were obnoxious to the 
stanchest members of his own party. Mr. Wade then denounced 
in the strongest terms the presence in and influence upon the 
Administration of Montgomery Blair, whom he believed to be at 
heart a Democrat. Later years have shown how well-grounded 
were the doubts then felt of Mr. Blair's political trustworthiness, 
doubts which were, even in 1864, general and strong enough to 
lead the Baltimore convention to declare in its platform that it 
regarded " as worthy of public confidence and official trust only 
those who cordially endorsed" its principles. Mr. Wade readily 
agreed, as the result of this conference, to pursue any course 
that should command the approval of his associate in the mani- 
festo, and Mr. Chandler left him to visit Mr. Lincoln at 
Washington and Henry Winter Davis at Baltimore. He obtained 
from the President what were practical assurances that Mr. Blair 
should not be retained in the Cabinet in the face of such strong 
opposition if harmony would follow his removal. Mr. Davis 
promptly recognized the logic of the situation, and expressed his 
willingness to accept Blair's displacement as an olive branch and 
give his earnest support to the Baltimore ticket. 

Mr. Chandler next proceeded to New York, and opened 
ncijotiations there with the managers of the Fremont movement. 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 275 

He had expected Mr. Wade to join liim, but was disappointed 
in this ; he ine.t at the Astor House the Hon. David H. Jerome 
of Saginaw and the Hon. Ebenezer O. Grosvenor of Jonesville, 
with whom he frequently counseled, and lie also obtained the 
assistance of George "Wilkes of the Sj)h'it of the Times. Mr. 
Wilkes was well known as the master of a pure and vigorous 
English, and no war correspondent equaled him in accurate, lucid 
and graphic descriptions of important movements and famous 
battles. The public, however, did not know the extent of his 
political ability, of his skill in affairs and of his patriotic energy, 
and these qualities proved of the highest usefulness to Mr, 
Chandler in the completion of his delicate mission. Without the 
aid so intelligently and zealously rendered by Mr. Wilkes, Mr. 
Chandler doubted whether complete success would have been 
possible. The negotiations were protracted for some days, but 
ultimfately the leaders of the Fremont organization agreed that, 
if Mr. Blair (whom General Fremont regarded as a bitter 
enemy) left the Cabinet and all other sources of Republican 
opposition to the Baltimore nominees were removed, the Cleve- 
land ticket should be formally withdrawn from the field. While 
these conferences were in progress Mr. Chandler learned that the 
editor of one of the influential evening papers of N"ew York, 
who had originally doubted the propriety of Mr. Lincoln's 
renomination, had concluded that his election was not possible 
and had prepared " a leader " urging his withdrawal, the holding 
of a second convention, and Republican union upon either Gen- 
eral Fremont or some other candidate who could command the 
solid party support. It was not until the day of the intended 
publication of the article and after it was in type that Mr. 
Chandler learned of its existence, and then by instant and ear- 
nest efforts he obtained its withholding until the result of his 
labors could be known. Ultimately all obstacles yielded to his 
persistence and skill, and he started for the capital to inform 



276 ZACriARIAH CHANDLER. 

Mr. Lincoln of the close of the negotiations and to ask the ful- 
fillment of the assurances concerning Mr. Blair's removal. On 
reaching Washington he went instantly to the White House, was 
admitted to an immediate private interview with the President 
in preference to a great throng of visitors, and re23orted in detail 
the successful result of his labors. On the day of this call upon 
Mr. Lincoln (Sept. 22, 1864) the newspapers published General 
Fremont's letter withdrawing his name as a presidential candi- 
date. In it he said : 

The presidential contest has in effect been entered upon in such a way 
that tlie union of the Republican party has become a paramount necessity. 
The policy of the Democratic party signifies either separation or re - establish- 
ment with slavery. The Chicago platform is simply separation. General 
McClellan's letter of acceptance is re -establishment with slavery. The Repub- 
lican candidate is, on the contrary, pledged to the re - establishment of the 
Union without slavery, and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pres- 
sure of his party will, we may hope, force him to it. Between these issues I 
think that no man of the Liberal party can remain in doubt. I believe I am 
consistent with my antecedents and my principles in withdrawing — not to aid 
in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the elec 
tion of the Democratic candidate. In respect to Mr. Lincoln, I continue to 
hold exactly the sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I consider 
that his administration has been politically, militarily and financially a failure, 
and that its necessary continuance is a cause of regret to the country. 

On the following day this correspondence took place : 

ExECUTrvE Mansion, Washington, Sept. 23, 1864. 
Hon. Montgomery Blair. 

My Dear Siu : You have generously said to me more than once that, 
whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. 
That time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissat- 
isfaction of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness 
has been unsurpassed by that of any friend, and while it is true that the war 
docs not seem greatly to add to the difficulties of your department, as to those 
of some others, it is not too much to say, which I most truly can. that in the 
three years and a half during which you have administered the general post- 
office I remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith. 
Yours as ever, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

POSTOFFTCE DEPARTMENT, Sept. 23, 1864. 

My Dear Sir -. I have received your note of this date referring to my 
offer to resign whenever you would deem it advisable for the public interest 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 2 i t 

that I should do so, and stating that in your judgment that time has come. 
I now, therefore, formally tender my resignation of the office of Postmaster- 
General. 

I cannot take leave of you without renewing the expression of my grati- 
tude for the uniform kindness which has marked your course toward me. 

Yours truly, M. BLAIR. 

To the President. 

Mr. Blair's resignation was accepted by the majority of 
Eepublicans throughout the North as a " cleansing of the Cab- 
inet,"* and party lines were at once re-formed. The "radicals" 
became earnest supporters of the Baltimore ticket, no Kepublican 
demand for a new nomination or a second convention appeared, 
Mr. Davis ceased his trenchant criticisms, and Mr. Wade took 
the stump and made a series of exceedingly effective speeches in 
Ohio and Pennsylvania, Military success also came with its 
po^vrerful help. General Sherman crowned his campaign by the 
capture of Atlanta, General Grant drew the coils of '" the ana- 
conda" daily tighter about the rebel capital, and General Sheri- 
dan fairly "swept" Early from the valley of the Shenandoah. 
The results of the September elections had been dubious in 
significance, but those of October were decisive Republican vic- 
tories and preceded an overwhelming triumph in November. Mr. 
Chandler (who had in 1863 taken an active share in the cam- 
paigns in New York and Illinois,f Michigan not holding any 
general election in that year) returned from his labors of media- 
tion to his own State and spoke to almost daily mass - meetings 

* Mr. Greeley's comment in the New York "Tribune" was : "Precisely why Mr. Lin- 
" coin thought this action called for at this moment, rather than at any other time in the 
"last four months, we are not told." This chapter shows that Mr. Chandler could have 
" told " him. 

+ If the North had been a unit the rebellion would long ago have been crushed. But 
the rebels found out we were not a unit at any time, so they persevered, so they invaded 
Pennsylvania, so they hoped to take Washington, and to raise insurrection all over the 
land. The only hope of the South to - day is in the traitors of the North. . . . They will 
fail in the contest. Instead of having established a slave empire they will have, by their 
own acts, destroyed all the securities that slavery ever possessed. They will have swept 
away all the compromises by which slavery has been tolerated by a forbearing people.— 
Senator Chandler at Springfield, III., on Sept. 7, 1863. 



278 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

in its chief towns throughout the montli of October. Michigan 
gave to the Lincohi electors a majority of 16,'J17, and sent only 
RepubHcans to the Thirty -ninth Congress. Mr, Chandler's con- 
tribution to this result was not unimportant, but it was of 
meagre value compared with his labors upon a broader field in 
healing grave dissensions and in quietly removing a cause of dan- 
ger which was deeply founded, and which, although now almost 
forgotten, was then of no slight actual proportions and of very 
serious possibilities. It was characteristic of the man that this 
self - prompted and successful service, one of the greatest he ever 
rendered to Republicanism, was rarely mentioned by him after- 
ward, and never as if it was more than was due to the cause of 
his political faith nor as if it gave him any especial claim u^^on 
the party gratitude. 




CHAPTER XYI. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON RECONSTRUCTION AND 

IMPEACHMENT. 

evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was 
assassinated at Ford's theater in the city of Washing- 
ton. The universal grief was fitly described by Disraeli, 
who said, in the British Commons, that the character 
of the victim and the circumstances of his death took the event 
"out of all the pomp of history and the ceremonial of diplo- 
" macy ; it touched the heart of nations and appealed to the 
" domestic sentiment of mankind." Its effect upon the Ameri- 
can people was profound, and it deepened vastly the public 
appreciation of the essential barbarity of the prejudices, passions 
and ambitions which had plunged the republic into civil war. 

The members of the Committee on the Conduct of the War 
returned on the evening of this crime from Richmond, having 
made an unsuccessful attempt to visit North Carolina for the pur- 
pose of taking testimony in regard to the Fort Fisher expedition. 
On the following morning they met, and addressed a formal 
note to Andrew Johnson, who had, while a Senator, served upon 
that committee, expressing the wish of his " old associates " to 
call upon him and acquaint him with " many things which they 
had seen and heard at Richmond." They were promptly admit- 
ted to his apartments at the Kirkwood House, and were among 
the first to talk freely with the man who had been so tragically 
made President of the newly -restored Union. Mr. Johnson had 
just been sworn into office by Chief Justice Chase in the 
presence of some of the Cabinet and a few Congressmen, and 



280 



ZACHARIAII CHANDLER 



naturally the conversation chiefly turned upon the pursuit of the 
assassins, and the proper punishment of tlie men who had 
inspired or countenanced this crime, as well as of its actual com- 
mitters. As a sequel of this conference, an important meeting 
was held on the following day (Sunday, April 16, 1865) in the 
Tresident's rooms. By appointment Senators Chandler and Wade 
and John Cuvode (an original member of the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War, then a contestant for a seat in the House) 
called upon Mr. Johnson, and proceeded to consider with him 
what policy should be pursued toward the chiefs of the con- 
quered rebellion. They believed that the public interest required 
that examples should be made of a few of the more guilty of 
the Southern traitors, and urged such a course upon the Presi- 
dent. They found him — confronted as he was with the danger 
of assassination, and recollecting his own sufferings as a Southern 
Unionist — eager for measures of extreme rigor, and w^ere com- 
pelled at the outset to seek to moderate a violence of intention 
on his part, which was certain to defeat the aim they were 
anxious to secure, namely: that of impressing the public with a 
sense oi the justice as well as the severity of the punisliment of 
deliberate and inexcusable treason. Andrew Johnson's disposition 
was to give to the contemplated proceedings rather a revengeful 
than a sternly retributive complexion. The relations of Mr. 
Chandler, Mr. Wade and Mr. Covode with their former fellow- 
committeeman were then exceedingly intimate, and they labored 
to restrain his vehemence and to direct his determination into a 
channel of action which should be just and not passionate, and 
should thus yield wholesome influences. It had been suggested 
that Davis and other fugitive rebels should be allowed to escape 
to Mexico or Europe, and the question of their punishment thus 
evaded; this ])lan was promptly condemned by all the partici- 
]>ant8 in the conterence, and there was a general agreement that 
the leaders of the rebellion should be arrested as rapidly as })(>s- 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 281 

silile and held to answer for their offenses. The next question 
that arose related to the best method of procedure after these 
men had been captured, and then it was decided than Gen. 
Benjamin F. Butler should be sent for to give his advice as a 
lawyer. Mr. Covode undertook this errand and soon returned 
with him. Mr. Chandler then stated to Greneral Butler the sub- 
ject of the conference, and the President added that he was 
anxious to make a historical example of the leading traitors, for 
its moral effect upon tlie future, and took exceedingly extreme 
ground on this point, much more so than the other gentlemen 
were willing to approve. All of those present expressed their 
opinions in turn, after Mr. Johnson had concluded, and all agreed 
upon one point, namely : that in the case of the seizure of 
Jefferson Davis he should be summarily punished by death. Mr. 
Chandler remarked, with emphasis : 

"You have only to hang a few of these traitors and all will 
"be peace and cpiiet in the South. A few men have done the 
"mischief, and the masses of the people were misled by them. 
"They have put the country in great peril to gratify their 
"political ambition and they ought to suffer the penalty of 
"treason as a warning to all men hereafter." 

To this Andrew Johnson replied that Mr. Chandler could 
not know the full enormity of the crime Davis and his asso- 
ciates had committed , that Northern men could never realize 
the sufferings the rebellion had brought upon the loyal people 
of the South, and that no punishment could be too severe. lie 
added that he was determined that a precedent should be estab- 
lished that would be forever a terror to such men as had con- 
spired to overthrow the government. 

After some further conversation, the President asked General 
Butler for his professional opinion, as to whether Davis, Benja- 
min, Floyd, Wigfall, and the other civil officers of the Confed- 
eracy, could bo tried by a military commission. General Butler 



282 ZACIIAHIAH CHANDLER. 

replied that if they could be arrested in tlie iTisnrrectioi\ary 
States — in any locality under military control and M'hcre no civil 
authority existed or was recognized — they could bo arraigned 
before such a tribunal, but a court of tin's character would 
have no jurisdiction if the criminals should get upon foreign 
soil, or, before being apj^rehended, reach any district where the 
civil law was in force. Mr. Chandler then urged that Davis 
should, by all means, be secured before he had a chance to have 
the seceded States ; and inquired as to the situation of the troops 
in the South and the probability of their defeating an attempt by 
Dav^is to fly through Mexico, or by boat on the Gulf. President 
Johnson replied that no way M'-as open for his escape, but that 
he would be captured, dead or alive. The supposition that Davis 
was implicated in the assassination plot was then discussed with 
some difference of opinion, and finally the President asked Gen- 
eral Butler to indicate a plan for the prosecution and punish- 
ment of Davis and his associates, for the use of the government. 
General Butler consented and tlie conference ended. 

With the preparation of the memorandum thus recpiested, 
General Butler occupied almost his entire time for several weeks, 
investigating precedents, and examining authorities with the 
utmost thorouglmess. During this work he was repeatedly in 
consultation with Mr. Chandler, who saw all of his notes and 
made many suggestions ; before its completion, Davis had been 
captured and sent to Fortress Monroe. General Butler's ])lan 
was submitted to President Johnson in tlie latter part of May, 
1865. It was long and elaborate, was based upon an exliaustive 
examination of the history of all military tribunals, and set forth 
in substance these propositions : 

1. That Davis could be tried by a military commission, hav- 
ing been captured while in rebellion in a locality where no 
lawful civil authority existed. This tribunal could sit at Fortress 
Monroe, where Davis was a prisoner, as that was still within the 
militarv lines. 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 283 

2. That this commission should be composed of the thirteen 
officers of the highest rank in the army; this provision would 
have made it consist of Lieut. -Gen. U. S. Grant; Major - 
Generals H. W. Halleck, W. T. Sherman, George G. Meade, 
Philip H. Sheridan, George H. Thomas, and Brigadier - Generals 
Irwin McDowell, Wm. S. Rosecrans, Philip St. George Cooke, 
John Pope, Jose23h Hooker, W. S. Hancock, and John M. 
Schofield. 

3. That in case of conviction, before the sentence should 
be executed, Davis should be allowed an opportunity to appeal 
to the Supreme Court of the United States; this would silence 
criticism, secure Davis all his legal rights, and establish a prece- 
dent which might stand for all time. 

4. That the only doubt that existed as to the conviction of 
Davis was to be found in the question of the jurisdiction of the 
militar}^ commission. 

5. That the prosecution should hold Davis's assumption of 
military authority against the United States as the overt act 'of 
treason, and that his military orders, his commissions of officers, 
his official announcements of himself as " commander - in - chief of 
the military and naval forces of the Confederate States," his offi- 
cial reviews of troops, the official reports made to him by com- 
manders of armies in rebellion, should be proven to establish 
the case. 

6. That the record of the oaths taken by him as an officer 
in the United States army, as a Senator, and as Secretary of 
War, should be shown with evidence that he had violated them. 

7. That the various acts of cruelty to j)risoners of war com- 
mitted by his orders should be proven ; other minor counts 
could also be introduced in the indictment to secure an accumu- 
lation of charges. 

General Butler's memorandum further set forth that the 
prosecution should expect to be met by the defense: 



284 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

1. With the question of jurisdiction. 

2. Witii an attempt to prove the right of secession. 

3. With the claim that the duty of allegiance to a state was 
superior to the duty of allegiance to the general government. 

4. With the claim that the acts of which Davis was accused 
were performed by him as the head of a de facto government, 
to which office he had been elected under forms of law. 

5. With the further i)oint that the recognition of this de facto 
government by the United States in the exchange of prisoners, 
in the acceptance of terms of surrender, in the observance of 
flags of truce, and in correspondence of various kinds, amounted 
to such a recognition of the existence of a government with 
which it was at war, as nnist prevent the United States from 
claiming that participation therein was treason. 

These were the chief points which General Butler thought 
the defense would set up, and in his brief he grouped a power- 
ful array of precedents and decisions upon which the prosecution 
could rest its case and meet these objections. During the early 
stages of this work, Mr. Chandler, General Butler and others, 
who firmly held that stern punishment should be meted out to a 
few conspicuous rebels — not in a spirit of vengeance, but from 
a belief that salutary results would follow if it should be estab- 
lished as a historical fact that in the United States treason is a 
high crime whose penalty is death — were constantly anxious 
lest the President should by some violent act or word destroy 
the moral effect of their position. In public he said repeat- 
edly at this time that "the penalties of the law must be in a 
"stern and inflexible manner executed upon conscious, intelligent 
"and influential traitors," but his private uttterances far out- 
stripped this language, and were often scarcely less than blood- 
thirsty. Mr. Chandler, on one occasion, came away from the 
White House greatly disturbed by Mr. Johnson's disposition to 
treat this subject with mere anger, and characteristically said to 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 285 

Senator Wade and Mr. Hamlin, " Johnson has the nightmare, and 
it is important that he should be watched." General Butler's 
memorandum Mr. Chandler heartily approved as clear in scope, 
just in spirit, and certain to prove effective in operation, but, by 
the time it was fully completed, a great change had taken place 
in the disposition of tlie President. In April he was in favor 
of hanging every body; in June he was opposed to hanging any 
one. He finally ignored entirely the memorandum which Gen- 
eral Butler had drawn up at his request, and decided that Davis 
should be tried by the civil authorities at Riclunond, where his 
crimes had been committed. As a result the arch -rebel was 
allowed to remain in prison at Fortress Monroe for nearly two 
years, because of the lack of a civil court competent to take 
jurisdiction of his case. In 1866 he was indicted and arraigned, 
and in 1867 was admitted to bail; a year later a nolle jprosequi 
was entered, and the case against him dismissed. Before this 
matter had reached its second stage even, Mr. Chandler had 
become convinced that Andrew Johnson had determined to 
desert the party which had elevated him to the vice - presidency, 
and with that knowledge ceased to act as his adviser and became 
one of the most active of his political enemies. The leniency of 
the course finally pursued toward Davis Mr. Chandler then and 
afterward regarded a^ a grave public mistake, and believed that 
the failure to enforce the death penalty where it was so 
thoroughly deserved was exceedingly unfortunate in its influence 
upon popular opinion, and did more than any other one cause 
to encourage the disloyal classes of the South in their plans for 
ultimately recapturing the political supremacy they had forfeited 
by rebellion. 

Precisely the causes which led Andrew Johnson so quickly 
back into close fellowship with the men whom he had regarded 
as his inveterate enemies will never be known. It is probable 
that originally they were slight, but liis temperament rapidly 



28(3 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

widened disagreement into irreconcilable hostility. His maudlin 
speech on Inauguration - day so incensed many of his supporters 
that the Republican senators, at a formal gathering, actually con- 
sidered a proposition (urged by Mr. Sumner) to request him to 
resign the office he had disgraced. The conference decided 
against such a step, but Mr. Johnson heard of the movement, 
and regarded those who approved it with much bitterness; his 
hatred of them undoubtedly fed his growing dislike for the 
party of which they were influential leaders. Again, he was a 
thorough representative of the "poor whites" of the South. He 
felt their jealousy of the planting aristocracy which monopolized 
political power in his section, and this made him such a vigorous 
opponent of the secession conspiracy which that oligarchy organ- 
ized and led. But he also shared in the prejudice of his own 
class against the negroes, and, when he saw the disposition of 
the Republicans to accord to the freedmen equal rights and 
privileges before the law, he refused to join in that movement 
and set doggedly about defeating such plans. Precisely how 
great Mr. Seward's influence over him was at this time is not 
clear, but it is certain that the change in his attitude toward 
Republicanism was simultaneous with the slow recovery of his 
Secretary of State from the blows of Payne's dagger. His 
combative obstinacy also made him fiercely resent the vigorous 
criticisms which his " policy " of reconstruction invited when first 
announced ; Congress did not meet for months after his accession 
to the presidency, and its leaders were not in position to check 
his course, either by organized remonstrance or by legislative 
interposition ; the rebels wdio had been denouncing him savagely 
Avere prompt to flatter his vanity and to offer promises of sup- 
port ; and, as a result, when the Thirty -ninth Congress met on 
December 4, 1865, the break between the President and the 
Republican party iiad passed beyond mending. Mr. Johnson 
entered at once upon tiiat shameiul course, wliicli inchuled the 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 287 

betrayal of tliose who had trusted him and the disgrace of his 
high office by lamentable public exhibitions of passion and boor- 
ishness, and whicli led to great and durable public injury by 
trebling the difficulties surrounding the delicate and important 
work of reconstructing the " Confederacy." Mr. Chandler's dis- 
trust of the President commenced with his change of tone in 
regard to the punishment of treason and wath the first manifes- 
tation of his intention to assume full control of reconstruction 
and to practically restore the rebels to power in the subdued 
States. They had one stormy interview at the White House, in 
which Mr. Chandler, after touching upon the implicit character 
of his confidence in the President during their senatorial service, 
denounced his new course as a violation of his sacred pledges 
and a base surrender to traitors, and left him indignantly and 
forever. From that time he regarded Andrew Johnson as a 
public enemy, whose opportunities for evil were to be lessened 
by every possible lawful restriction. He did not oppose the 
efforts made by his more hopeful associates in December, 1865, 
to re-establish harmony between the Capitol and the "White 
House, but he predicted their failure. All the legislation which 
diminished Johnson's power for harm he ardently supported. The 
bills to admit Nebraska and Colorado (the Colorado bill failed at 
this time) he was especially active in pushing, from a belief that 
it "svas important to increase the Republican ascendency in the 
Senate while there was an uncertainty as to how much strength 
the "Johnson men" proper (Senators Doolittle, Dixon, Norton, 
and Cowan) might develop. It was largely through Mr. Chand- 
ler's untiring exertions, also, that the Fortieth Senate elected 
Benjamin F. Wade as its President, and thus made him the 
acting Yice - President of the United States, a position of the 
very highest responsibility in the then critical state of national 
affairs. 

Mr. Chandler aided in shaping and passing the reconstruction 
measures of 1866 -'07 -'68, not for the reason that they precisely 



288 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

embodied his ideas of the true method to he pursued, but 
because they presented a plan upon which the Republicans 
could be united, which was practicable, and wliich promised to 
reorganize the Southern States on the basis of the supremacy 
of the loyal elements in their population. When Andrew John- 
son took the first step in unfolding his "policy" (by his general 
amnesty proclamation and by the appointment of a provisional 
governor for North Carolina, both acts bearing the date of May 
29, 1865 ) the " Confederacy " had ceased to exist, its chieftain 
was a captive, its armies were prisoners of war on parole, its 
capacity for resistance had been consumed in the furnace of 
battle, but its bitterness still glowed and tlie prejudices and 
ambitions whicli gave it being were undestroyed. The amnesty 
proclamation relieved, with a few exceptions, those who bore 
arms against the government and the most virulent supporters of 
rebellion who remained at home from all pains and penalties on 
the sole condition that they should su]>scribe to an oath of 
future loyalty. The provisional government proclamations per- 
mitted all persons thus amnestied, who were voters according to 
laws of the States previous to the rebellion, to elect delegates 
to conventions to amend the local constitutions and restore the 
States to their "constitutional relations with the federal govern- 
ment." By this process the loyal colored men of the South 
were denied the right to participate in the work of reconstruc- 
tion and the entire machinery of reorganization was placed in 
the control of men whose hands were yet red with Union blood. 
Their discretion was only hampered by three conditions, compli- 
ance with which was made essential to the presidential approval 
of their work. They were required to annul the secession ordi- 
nances, to formally recognize the abolition of slavery, and to 
repudiate all debts created to promote rebellion. Beyond this, 
tlie disloyal classes of the South were left in undisputed mastery 
of the situation. The control of the insurgent States, and of the 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 289 

lives and fortunes of the loyalists, wliite and black, were surren- 
dered absolutely to the men who but a few weeks before had 
been wrecked in the catastrophe which overwhelmed the rebell- 
ion. That they were prompt to improve this unexpected, unde- 
served and mistaken leniency need not be said. Their use of 
their ne^v power was both presumptuous and intolerant. In 
elections, which proscribed Union men as unworthy of trust, con- 
ventions were chosen which accepted ungraciously the mere fact 
of emancipation, and which repudiated the rebel debts only under 
repeated presidential compulsion. State governments were then 
organized, wliich placed men wliose disloyalty had been conspic- 
uous in responsible positions, and which sent im amnestied leaders 
of the rebellion in Jhe field and in council to Washington as 
claimants of Congressional seats. The State legislation which fol- 
lowed embodied in shameful laws the unquenched diabolism of 
the slave power. In statutory phraseology these enactments 
declared, " politically and socially this is a white man's govern- 
ment," and, impudently asserting that Congress was without any 
power over the matter, the men who had, in form, admitted the 
death of slavery proceeded to establish peonage in its stead. No 
body of laws adopted by any civilized nation in this century has 
equaled in studied injustice and cruelty those by which the 
"Johnson governments" of 1865 and 1866 sought to prevent the 
freedmen from rising from the level of admitted and hopeless 
inferiority, and to convince the blacks that in ceasing to be slaves 
they had only become serfs. Colored people were denied the right 
to acquire or dispose of public property. It was made a crime for 
a negro to enter a plantation without the consent of its owner 
or agent. Freedmen were declared vagrants, and punished as 
such for preaching the gospel without a license from some regu- 
larly organized church. Colored men failing to pay capitation 
tax were declared vagrants and the sale of their services was per- 
mitted as a penalty. Black persons were prohibited from renting 
10 



290 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

or leasing lands except in incorporated towns or villages. Their 
owning or bearing arms was declared to be a violation of the 
peace. For a negro to break a labor contract w^as made an 
offense punishable by imprisonment. Colored laborers on farms 
were prohibited from selling poultry or farm products, and it 
was made a misdemeanor to purchase from them. This class 
was also denied the right of forming part of the militia, and it 
was made an offense for any freedman to enter a religious or 
other assembly of whites, or go with them into any rail car or 
public conveyance. White persons "usually associating them- 
selves with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes" Avere also 
declared to be vagrants in the eye of the law. The colored peo- 
ple were prohibited from practicing any art, trade or business 
except husbandry, without special license from the courts. And 
most infamous of all were the statutes for the compulsory 
apprenticeship of colored children with or without the consent 
of parents, whicli practically re-established over the next gener- 
ation of the freed people slavery with the M-hipping-post and 
overseer's lash. One State by joint resolution tendered thanks 
to Jefferson Davis "for the noble and patriotic manner in which 
"he conducted the affairs of our government while President of 
"the Confederacy," and other resolutions were adopted declaring 
that " nothing more is required for the restoration of law and 
order but the withdrawal of federal bayonets." [The fell spirit 
and tendency of the reaction which was thus revealed found still 
more significant expression in the revolting butchery in and 
around the Mechanic's Institute of New Orleans on the 30th of 
July, 1866.] Some of these infamous measures Avere adopted in all 
the insurrectionary States, others in only some of them, Init 
without exception the new Southern governments which Andrew 
Johnson's "policy" created were founded upon the traditions 
of the slave system and the memories of "the lost cause." The 
objection that the President had, in thus taking the work of 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 291 

reconstruction into his own hands, usurped authority devolved 
upon Congress by the constitution, was a strong one, but it 
received but httle popular attention. Anger at the results of 
that "policy" obscured the mere disapproval of its methods. 
When it was seen that the rebellion had merely changed its 
theater of action, and that what it lost on the battle-field it 
proposed to secure by legislation, there was but one opinion 
among the masses of the people who had heartily supported the 
war and were sincerely anxious to preserve its fruits. Their 
emphatic demand was that the illegal and reactionary governments 
set up by the President should be overturned, and the South 
reconstructed in the interests of loyalty and liberty. Congress, 
as part of its stubborn contest with Andrew Johnson, undertook 
this work. It refused to recognize the pretended State govern- 
ments or to admit their Congressmen. It divided the territory 
of the conquered States into five military districts, and placed it 
under the control of the army until a juster system of recon- 
struction could be applied. It then provided that in the calling 
of conventions to frame new constitutions colored men should be 
permitted to vote ; that those revised instruments must confer 
the elective franchise upon all loyal colored people and all 
whites not disfranchised for rebellion ; that the work of the con- 
ventions must be submitted to the colored and white people not 
disfranchised for approval ; that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth 
Amendments to the national constitution must be ratified ; and 
that the State constitutions so adopted must be submitted to and 
accepted by Congress. Upon this general plan the South was 
reconstructed, not without much friction, not wholly to the satis- 
faction of the men who marked out this course of procedure, 
but with the faith (or at least the trust) on their part that it 
would restore that section to the Union with genuinely free 
institutions, that it would protect the emancipated slave in his 
rights, and that it would substitute for disloyal communities 



292 ZACIIAKIAII ClIANDLEK. • 

States controlled by those whose interests and traditions lay with 
the national canse. The reconstruction laws were not vengeful 
in character ; the aim of the men who passed them was not 
retaliation, not even retribution except in so far as the apjjliea- 
tion of mild penalties to treason might increase the security of 
the future. To prevent a reiDctition of the terrible struggle 
which had just closed was the aim ; that a political system had 
been devised, which both recognized human rights, and by its 
natural operations would exclude from political power the men 
who had phinged the country into civil war, M'as the h()})e. 
Within ten years the scheme failed utterly, and what it was 
designed to prevent had been accomplished upon its ruins. Ko 
body of laws can maintain itself in the face of organized mur- 
der and terrorism which authority refuses to either punish or 
prevent. 

The reconstruction measures, while they commanded Mr. 
Chandler's general assent, were laxer in details than he would 
have made them. lie felt, as Thaddeus Stevens said, that much 
that they ought to have contained was " defeated by the united 
"forces of self-righteous Republicans and unrighteous Copper- 
" heads,'' but held that the bills which Avere passed deserved sup- 
port as a whole on the ground that it was not wise to "throw 
away a great good because it is not i^erfect." Schuyler Col- 
fax closed one of his speeches upon this subject as follows : 
" Loyalty must govern what loyalty preserved." Mr. Chandler 
complimented him warmly and said, "You got it all into one 
sentence," and that doctrine and the belief in equal rights for 
citizens of every color guided his share of the work upon all 
measures affecting reconstruction. His chief regret was that the 
process of this reorganization was not prolonged until the loyal 
sentiment of the South had become strong enough and intelli- 
gent enough to maintain itself. If his wishes had ])ri'v;iili'd, the 
])rovisional governing of that section would ha\'e bci'U continued 



J 



. ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 293 

until the education of the bLacks, tlie death of the rebel leaders, 
and the extinguishment by time of the ])rejudices and animosi- 
ties of the war had accomplished such a wholesome revolution 
in sentiment throughout that section as would in itself have been 
a loyal and durable reconstruction. As this was not possible, he 
spared no effort to make successful the experiment which was 
attempted; if others had been as resolute and faithful as he, it 
would not have failed. He did not share in the disposition of 
so many Republicans to abandon what had been just commenced 
because of the imperfection of its first fruits. He stood man- 
fully for the maintenance by J^orthern opinion and by the aid 
of the United States of the loyal State governments of the 
South, not claiming they were faultless, but because they were 
based on justice and were far better than that which would take 
their place if they fell. When they were assailed by assassina- 
tion, by massacre, and by systematic terrorizing, he believed that 
it was the duty of the general government to use all its author- 
ity and all its force to protect its citizens in their rights and to 
prevent the harvesting by unpunished traitors of the fruits of 
atrocities as brutal and bloody as Saint Bartholomew. The policy 
of political murder triumphed finally at tlie South, not tln-ough 
any weakness of such men as he, nor through any failure upon 
his part to denounce that vast crime. He labored strenuously to 
kindle Northern opinion into such a fiame of just wrath as 
would have made impossible that victory of organized brutality. 
Mr. Chandler was often described by political opponents as 
'' the relentless enemy of the South ; " nothing was farther from 
the fact. That small minority of the Southern peoj^le, who 
ruled that section with oligarchical power before and during 
the war, who organized and led the rebellion, and who have 
now regained supremacy by outrage and murder, he always dis- 
trusted and attacked. But the great majority of the people of 
the South — the blacks whom those men rob of their rights and 



294 ZACHARIAU CHANDLER. 

the whites whom they mislead — he profoundly pitied, and their 
cause he espoused. For them he demanded equal rights before 
the law, a free ballot box, the common school, and an oppor- 
tunity to })rove their manhood. Those wlio resisted a policy so 
just and civilizing he was quick to denounce in unstinted terms, 
and upon them he did not waste conciliation. They — not "the 
Sontli " — found him the inappeasable, but still " the avowed, the 
ci'cct, the manly foe." 

In the elections of 1800 the issues were chiefly those con- 
lUH'ted witli reconstruction, and Mr. Chandler as usual spoke in 
his own and other AVestern States, exposing the malign results 
of Mr. Johnson's " policy " and in advocacy of the Congressional 
plan and the Fourteenth Amendment. The general tenor of his 
speeches will appear from this extract from an address delivered 
at Detroit, at the close of the political campaign : 

These perjured traitors are permitted to live here, but we say to them 
they can never again hold office unless Congress by a two -thirds vote shall 
remove the disability ; why, a man who has committed perjury alone, right 
here in Michigan, you would not allow to testify before a justice of the 
peace in the most petty case. But we forget tlie perjury of the rebels 
which would send them to the State prison, we forget the hanging which 
follows treason, and say to them simply, that for the future they can never 
hold office. Personally I am not in favor of the last clause of this section 
which gives Congress the power to remove this disability by a two -thirds 
vote. I would have let tliis race of perjured traitors die out, out of office, 
and educate the rising generation to loyalty. But it is in the amendment 
and I advocate its adoption as it is. 

Often during the progress of the obstinate struggle between 
Andrew Johnson and Congress his attempts to evade law and 
Ins encroachments upon the powers vested in the legislative 
brancli of tlie government led to tlie serious consideration in the 
House of Hepresentatives of the question of iinpeachmeut. Sev- 
earl resolutions ordering the preferring of charges against him at 
the bar of the Senate were presented without action, luit on the 
Ttli of .lunuarv, lSf.7, the Hon. J. 1\[. Ashler of Oliio offered 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 295 

a preamble, beginning, " I do impeach Andrew Johnson, Yice - 
"President and acting President of the United States, of high 
"crimes and misdemeanors. I charge him with usurpation of 
"power and violation of law in that he has corruptly used the 
"appointing power; . . . corruptly used the pardoning 
"power; . . . corruptly used the veto power; 
"corruptly disposed of public property; . . . and corruptly 
"interfered in elections." With this preamble was a resolution 
referring the charges to the Judiciary Committee to inquire if 
the President had been guilty of acts which were "calculated to 
ov^erthrow, subvert or corrupt the government." By a vote of 
108 yeas to 39 nays this reference was ordered, but no report 
was made until November 25, 1867, and then a resolution of 
impeachment was submitted by Mr. Boutwell in behalf of 
the majority of the committee. On December 7, this resolution 
was rejected by a vote of 57 to 108. Encouraged by this result 
Mr. Johnson, who had suspended Edwin M. Stanton from the 
Secretaryship of War during the Congressional recess of 1807, 
and whose action had been disapproved by the Senate under the 
Tenure of Civil Office act, undertook to force Mr. Stanton out 
by a second suspension on February 21, 1868, accompanied by 
an order appointing Gen. Lorenzo Thomas Secretary ad interhn. 
Mr. Stanton declined to acknowledge the President's power to 
take this step, refused to give place to General Thomas, and for 
many days and nights remained in constant occupation of the 
department offices. The House of Kepresentatives at once 
arraigned the President before the Senate for this attempted 
violation of the Tenure of Office act, and his trial followed. 
Chief Justice Chase presided; the proceedings lasted from Feb- 
ruary 25 until May 26, 1868; and in the end Mr. Johnson was 
acquitted, exactly the number of Republican Senators necessary 
to defeat conviction voting with the Democratic minority. 
These proceedings Mr. Chandler watched with the liveliest 



290 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. • 

interest, and the failure of the impeachment was one of the 
most hitter disappointments of his iiohtical career, lie sincerely 
believed that Johnson's course fully merited a verdict of 
" guilty," and he felt that the great difficulties surrounding the 
problem of the loyal reconstruction of the South M'ould disap- 
pear if the executive department of the government was admin- 
istered with the Jacksonian vigor and patriotism of Benjamin F, 
"Wade. Mr. Stanton's refusal to permit the President to displace 
him without the consent of the Senate he endorsed with the 
utmost heartiness, and, while the Secretary remained in his office 
to prevent its seizure by Mr. Johnson's ad interim appointee, Mr. 
Chandler spent night after night with him, and did all that was 
possible to strengthen his resolution and to lighten his volun- 
tary coniinement. On one occasion, when there were signs of an 
intention on the part of the claimant to use force, Mr. Chand- 
ler, General Logan, and a few others gathered together about 
a hundred trusty men, who occupied the basement of the dcjxirt- 
ment, and there did garrison duty nntil the danger was past. 
During Johnson's trial Mr. Chandler was not forgetful of his 
position as a judge, and was an attentive listener to the evidence 
and the arguments before and in the court of imjDeachment. 
He was restive under the length of the proceedings, however, 
and did advise the managers on the part of the House to push 
the case along as rapidly as possible, urging that the public 
interest required the ending of the general suspense. He felt 
then, and said afterward, that the delay was nsed to effect com- 
binations with, and apply pressure to, individual Senators, which 
would induce them to favor acquittal. That this was done he 
never doubted, and he repeatedly denounced in the strongest 
terms, both in public and private, the action of the seven 
Republicans (Senators Fessenden, Trumbull, Grimes, Henderson, 
Fowler, Ross and Van Winkle) who voted "not guilty" with 
the Democrats and the "Johnson men." He was especially 



ANDREW JOHNSON'S TERM. 29T 

indignant at the course of Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Trumbull, 
and on several occasions in after years came into sliarp personal 
collision with them during the Senate debates. The linal failure 
of the impeachment movement he felt as a blow. One who 
knew him well has said: "He believed that republican govern- 
"ment was at stake and impeachment a necessity. Never was 
"there a time when he came so near despairing of the republic 
"as at that event." 

The Thirty -ninth and Fortieth Congresses remained in 
nearly continuous session for over three years "watching the 
White House." Outside of the exciting political topics which 
received so large a share of their attention, they were com- 
pelled to deal with important financial, commercial and material 
questions affecting vitally the general interest. The currency and 
public debt demanded simplification ; the tax system was to be 
changed from a war to a peace footing ; the commercial wrecks 
of many years called for a bankrupt law ; bounties were to be 
equalized, pensions provided, and war claims adjusted on wise 
bases ; neglected internal improvements clamored for renovation 
and extension ; the ocean commerce required national care ; and 
innumerable minor interests, long neglected under the stress of 
civil war, needed instant attention. Mr. Chandler worked with 
characteristic energy and practical wisdom in all these branches 
of legislative activity, and rendered public services of varied and 
permanent usefulness. 




CHAPTEK XVII. 



TIIK PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT THE REPUBLICAN CONGRES- 
SIONAL COMMITTEE. 

N the presidential election of 1808 Mr. Chandler was 
e\eii more than usnally active, both as an organizer and 
speaker. He delivered nearly forty addresses in his own 
State, which gave to the Grant and Colfax ticket 31,492 
majority, and elected a Republican Congressman in each of its 
Bi.K districts. The Legislature chosen at the same time had 66 
Republican majority upon joint ballot, and re-elected Mr. Chand- 
ler for his third Senatorial term, the Democratic vote being cast 
for the Hon. Sanford M. Green of Bay City. In the Republi- 
can caucus there was ])ractically no opposition to Mr. Chandler's 
renomination, and he received on the first and only ballot 78 
votes, 13 other ballots being cast for seven gentlemen by way of 
personal compliment. The inauguration of President Grant, on 
March 4, 1869, renewed Mr Cliandler's influence with the execu- 
tive branch ol" the government, and the political and personal 
friendship between him and the modest, resolute, and illustrious 
soldier who succeeded Andrew Johnson grew mutually stronger 
and more appreciative from that day. 

Very much of the legislation of President Grant's first term, 
which received Mr. Chandler's vigilant attention and absorbed no 
small share of his energy, related to the details of the public 
business, and furnishes no biographical material of permanent 
interest. He sujiported the Piftcentli Amendment in all its stages, 
and also the Civil Rights bills, which he regarded as incomplete. 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. ^99 

but still as the taking of steps in the direction of justice.* It 
was his firm purpose to contribute his share toward making 
American citizenship mean something, for both black and white, 
and, if life was spared, to cease not his labors until the humblest 
freeman in the United States should be in lirni possession of 
every natural and constitutional right, should have free access to 
an honest ballot-box, should suffer no proscription lor his polit- 
ical opinions, and should be amply protected in his liberty to 
think, say, go, and do as he pleased within the limitations laid 
down by law for the regulation of the conduct of all. The bat- 
tle, in. which he was so eager and stalwart a leader, will not be 
finished until that result is forever secured. 

Early in General Grant's term the friends of Edwin M. 
Stanton determined to secure for him such an official appoint- 
ment as should be congenial to his tastes and guarantee him an 
adequate support in old age. His iron constitution resisted the 
enormous labors of the civil war successfully. For many months 
he worked from fifteen to twenty hours in each day; his assist- 
ant secretaries were energetic and trained men of affairs, but 
their strength successively gave way in attempting to keep up 
with their chief. When the strain was finally withdrawn, it was 
perceived that his own powers were greatly exhausted. Rest 
restored their tone somewhat, and he made one or two legal 
aiguments and public addresses, which showed that his intellect- 
ual vigor was undiminished, but these efforts were followed by 
extreme nervous prostration. Under these circumstances, Mr. 
Stanton's friends determined to secure for him a judicial 
appointment. For such a position he was qualified by eminent 
professional attainments, and this fact and the permanency of 

* To a letter of confidence and congratulation, written to him at the time of his last 
Senatorial election, by a committee of the colored citizens of East Saginaw, Mich , Mr. 
Chandler replied (under date of Feb. 20, 1879) ; '•! hope to be able to assist in the grand 
"but unfinished work of securing equal political rights for every citizen of this country, 
'black as well as white, South as well as North." 



300 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

tenure made the tender of a place upon tlie bench grateful to 
him. Accordingly, when Judge Grier resigned his position as a 
member of the Supreme Court, Mr. Stanton's appointment to 
the vacant Associate Justiceshi]) was at once urged upon Presi- 
dent Grant. Mr. Chandler was very active in this matter and 
pressed it with all his energy. The effort was successful, and 
on Dec. 20, 1869, this nomination was sent to the Senate and 
promptly confirmed. Four days afterward, and before his com- 
mission was made out, Mr. Stanton's overtaxed constitution 
broke down, and he died after a brief illness, in the fifty -fifth 
year of his age, as thorough a sacrifice to the nobility of his 
own patriotic devotion during the war as the bravest soldier who 
fell on any of its battle-fields. During his fatal illness, Mr. 
Chandler was a frequent watcher at his bedside, and was one of 
the last persons with whom the dying statesman conversed. 
After his death it was found that the man who had controlled 
the disbursement of hundreds of millions had died })oor, and liad 
not left an estate adequate to the su]>j)ort of his children. Con- 
gress directed a year's salary of a Justice of the Supi-enie 
Court to be paid to his heirs. Mr. Chandler and others of I lis 
friends also set on foot a movement to raise a national memorial 
fund. A meeting of Republicans was called at the residence of 
Congressman Samuel Hooper of Massachusetts, and a committee 
was there appointed who collected over $140,000 (Mr. Chandler 
'contributing $10,000 and President Grant $1,000), which Avas 
invested in United States bonds and placed in the hands of a 
lew trustees, of whom Surgeon - General Barnes of the army 
was chairman, for the benefit of the Stanton family. 

Durmg General Grant's term the subject of " war claims " 
commenced to attract national attention. Originally the Repub- 
lican Congresses dealt liberally with the South in the nuitter of 
compensation iov damages inflicted upon its loyal citizens during 
tlie rcbelhon. By a series of carefully -guarded laws (and by a 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. SOI 

few private relief measures passed to meet exceptional eases) a 
large sum was paid to residents of the rebel States who suffered 
war losses, and were able to produce satisfactory proof of their 
fidelity to the Union. In this matter the national government 
certainly went to the extreme verge of generosity. The experi- 
ence attending the disbursement of the money thus appropriated 
established conclusively the fraudulent and outrageous character of 
a large percentage of these claims. In thousands of cases inves- 
tigation showed conclusively that arrant rebels were willing to 
swear that they had been "Union men," and that small losses 
had, hy false affidavits, been magnified into great sums. As recon- 
struction broke down, and the survivors of the rebellion gained 
in strength at the Capitol, a new danger arose. No statute of lim- 
itations barred the indefinite presentation of claims to Congress, 
and it soon became evident that, not merely Southern loyalists, 
but avowed rebels who suffered losses in the war were looking to 
the general government for compensation for the damages which 
their own treason had invited. The movement on the Treasury 
in their interest did not take on the form of an attack in front, 
but by the flank. It commenced with plausible aj)plications for 
the "relief" of Southern institutions and corporations, and not 
of individuals. It further manifested itself in propositions for 
such a relaxation of the terms of the laws and regulations gov- 
erning this class of claims as would abolish all distinctions of 
" loyalty " and put the " Confederate " upon an equal footing 
with the Union applicant for this kind of "relief." The precise 
dimensions of this scheme, which has been well characterized as 
" an attempt to make the United States pay to the South what 
" it cost it to be conquered in addition to what it cost to con- 
" quer it," have not yet fully appeared, but the cloven hoof has 
been sufficiently revealed to justly arouse and alarm the loyal 
sentiment of the ^N'orth. Mr. Chandler's record upon this ques- 
tion affords a striking illustration of the soundness of his judg- 



302 ZACHARIAH CHANDLEK. 

ment as to the scope and tendency of any particular line of 
public policy. When this subject first demanded attention, lie 
took the position which his party substantially assumed ten years 
later. His clear and practical mind saw what the consequences 
would be of any general re-imbursement of war losses, and he 
strenuously resisted the taking of any false steps at the outset. 
Thus, on March 2, 18G5, upon the bill to pay Josiah O. Armes 
for the destruction of property within the rebel lines, he said in 
the Senate : 

I hope this bill will not pass the Senate. ... If you pass it, if you 
set this precedent, if you say to every rebel and every loyal man, and every 
man throughout the South, by the passage of this bill, that you intend to pay 
for every dollar of property that has been destroyed by order of t)ur generals, 
you will give a more fatal blow to the credit of the government than by any 
other act that you can perform in this body. I should look upon the passage 
of this bill as a national calamity, and one that we cannot afford at this time 
to bring on our heads. It will do more to shake the faith of our own citizens 
and of the moneyed centers of the world in the credit of your securities than 
any otlier act you could perform. 

In his address before the Republican caucus which renom- 
inated him for the Senate in January, 1869, he also said : 

The moment this government begins to allow claims for damages accruing 
to individuals during the war in the South, it is placed in a position of great 
peril. Every rebel in the South who lost a liaystack or barn by tire during 
the war will prove his loyalty and secure damages. It requires the greatest 
vigilance to prevent some of these claims from being allowed, as they are 
continually being pressed upon Congress, and probably will be for many 
years. The laws of war do not require nor justify the allowance of this class 
of claims even to loyal men. If they are loyal, then tliey have served the 
government, and that is compensation enough. If they are disloyal, they have 
no claim. 

These quotations indicate his original position on this issue, 
taken in the days when it had received but the slightest public 
attention. They are exactly in the line of tlie vigorous utter- 
ances upon the same topic -which formed one of the important 
features of his public addresses in 1879, when the subject had 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 303 

aroused marked popular interest, and other leaders had stepped 
up to the platform he had so long occupied. 

But Mr. Chandler did more than strenuously oppose the pay- 
ment of the "war claims" of Southern disloyalists; his far- 
sightedness placed in their path a serious practical obstacle. In 
1873, a Colonel Pickett, who had been confidentially connected 
with the War Department of the " Confederacy," came to Wash- 
ington and offered to sell to the authorities a vast quantity of 
the archives of the rebel government, which he had secreted 
before the capture of Richmond. Congress was not in session, 
and the Secretary of War, having no authority in law, refused to 
buy the documents. Mr. Chandler Avas in that city at the time, 
and Pickett was referred to him as a man of means and as one 
who would be apt to appreciate the importance of such a pur- 
chase. After one or two calls, Mr. Chandler determined that the 
matter deserved investigation at least. He asked for a schedule 
of the documents and for a statement of their prices. Pickett 
promptly furnished the former and offered to sell them for 
$250,000. Mr. Chandler, after a careful examination of the 
schedule, replied with a proposition that, if the papers corre- 
sponded with the list furnished, he would pay $75,000 for them. 
This offer was at last accepted, and Mr. Chandler deposited that 
sum in a Washington bank, subject to Pickett's order after a 
thorough examination of the documents had been made. Confi- 
dential clerks were at once set at work upon them, and it was 
found that they even surpassed their owner's representations as to 
value. The purchase was therefore completed, and the docu- 
ments became the private property of Mr. Chandler, who had 
them locked up in a vault. When Congress met, a bill was 
passed authorizing the Secretary of War in general terms to 
purchase the archives of the Confederate government if it was 
ever possible, and appropriating $75,000 for this purpose. As 
soon as the bill became a law Mr. Chandler transferred the doc- 



304 ZACHAKIAII CHANDLER. 

uments to the Secretary of War, and tliey are now in the 
possession of that department and constitnte one of tlie most 
vahiable and useful features of its record of the rebellion. The 
amount that has been saved to the government by this purchase, 
in furnishing evidence to defeat rebel claims, already exceeds 
many -fold the original price. Case after case in the Quarter- 
master-General's office, before the Southern Claims Commission, 
and before the Court of Claims has been defeated by evidence 
found among these papers.* One single conspicuous instance 

* The value of this class of documents will further appear from two quotations from 
the official '-Digest of the Report of the Southern Claims Commission upon the Disal- 
lowed Claims,"' only two being talcen where many might he. "Claim No. 193" was pre- 
ferred before this Commission by W. R. Alexander of Dicl.son, Ala., for $1.3,44:5, for cotton 
and horses furnished to the Union army. Mr. Alexander produced evidence to show, and 
swore himself, that he had been a consistent Union man. The Digest (1 vol., p. .55) says: 
" Among the papers of the rebel government found at Richmond is a letter, now in the 
"War Department, a copy of which Adjutant -General Townsend has furnished to us. It 

" reads as follows : , , „ .,.,., .„„. 

"'DicKsov. Ala., Angust 1, ISGl. 

"Sir: I have heard that the War Department was scarce of arms, and I have taken 
"it upon myself to look up all the old muskets I can find and I now send them to you, 
" and I hope they will kill many a Yankee. I have had one musket fixed to my notion, 
"which I send with the others for a model. All here are delighted with our victory, both 
"white and black. Yours, respectfully, wm. r. Alexander. 

" P. S. I send these guns, tea in number, to the Ordnance Department, Richmond, 
"Virginia. w. k. a. 

" The Hon. L. P. Walker.' 

"On October 11, 1872, the counsel for the claimant, John J. Key, Esq., appeared 
"before the Commissioners and requested that the claim be withdrawn, admitting the dis- 
" loyalty of the claimant. The claim is rejected." 

"Claim i:i5" was preferred by J. P. Levy of Wilmington, N. C, for $10,000. After he 
had sworn to his own loyalty, he was called upon to face some letteis found in the rebel 
archives. The Commisssion say (p. 3-3, 1 vol., Digest): "The original letters were fur- 
" nislied the Commission by the War Department from the captured rebel archives, and 
"copies of several of them were filed with this report. . . . We have in them the 
"claimant at the outbreak of the war calling upon the rebel government to punish the 
"superintendent of his brother's plantation for insulting the rebel flag; and, again, asking 
"the rebel Congress to pass a law granting him his brother's plantation on account of his 
"signal service to the rebel cause; and, again, offering a ship, to be commanded by him- 
"self, for the rebel service; also, tendering for the benefit of the rebel army, patent 
"fuse train and soda baking-powders, and boasting and complaining of the large amount 
"due him from the rebel government for supplies for the rebel army And now this 
"shameless traitor, perjurer and swindler comes before us and swears, with brazen effront- 
"ery, that the government of the United States owes him, as a loyal adherent to the 
"cause of the Union and the government throughout the war of the rebellion, for sup- 
" plies furnished the army, the sum of $10,000. We reject this claim." 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 305 

in wbicli they saved to the Treasury more than four times their 
entire cost attracted much deserved attention at the time. On 
Nov. 16, 1877, an effort was made by leading Southern Demo- 
crats in the House of Representatives to pass under a suspension 
of the ]-ules, and without debate, a joint resohition ordering 
the immediate payment of several hundred tliousand dollars to 
mail contractors in the rebel States wlio forfeited their contracts 
at the commencement of the rebellion. An objection from the 
Hon. Omar D. Conger prevented action on that day, but the 
resolution came up again on Feb. 15, 1878. Representative John 
H. Reagan of Texas, who had been the Postmaster- General of 
the rebel Cabinet, then took charge of the measure, and assured 
the House that the resolution was a purely formal matter, that 
it only provided for the payment of liabilities incurred before 
the war commenced, and that the rebel government had never 
paid these men for the same services. The Hon. Edwin 
Willits of Michigan, by a timely examination of the pliraseology 
of the resolution, discovered that it provided for the payment of 
these contractors, not down to the actual beginning of the rebel- 
lion, but until May 31st, 1861, many weeks after the rebel 
government had been formed and after the firing upon Fort 
Sumter. Calling attention to this fact, he obtained the further 
postponement of the consideration of the resolution. When it 
came up again (on March 8, 1878) Mr. Willits came to the 
House armed with a volume of the rebel statutes and with 
important extracts from documents contained in the rebel 
archives. With this evidence he demonstrated in ten minutes' 
time, beyond question, that the rebel government had assumed 
the payment of this class of claims, that it confiscated United 
States money and applied it to that purpose, that the men so 
paid agi-eed to refund to the rebel treasury any money subse- 
quently given them on this account by the United States, and 
that the joint resolution was but an attempt to pay a second 
20 



306 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

time contracts already paid and also properly declared forfeited 
tlirougli treason. The scene attendant npon this expose was a 
dramatic one, and it resulted in the virtual abandonment then of 
the measure by those wlio were responsible for it. This result 
would not have been possible, had not the rebel archives thus 
opportunely yielded up their secrets. Their possession by the 
government is undoubtedly Avorth millions to the Treasury. 

In ISTl, the second term of Jacob M. Howard, as Senator 
from Michigan, expired, and Thomas W. Ferry, then a member 
of the House of Representatives, was chosen as his successor. 
With his new colleague Mr. Chandler's relations were always 
close and cordial, and upon the questions of reconstruction, c(|u:il 
rights, and the national supr'jmacy their accord M'as complete. 
Mr. Ferry rapidly attained distinction in the upper branch of 
Congress, and was for several successive years the President pro 
tempore of the Senate. The death of Vice-President Wilson 
in 1875 made him Acting Vice-President of the United States, 
and he held that responsible position throughout the trying 
weeks of the electoral dispute of lS70-'7, when his good sense, 
the perfect discretion of his course, and the dignity and impar- 
tiality with which he discharged duties of the gravest character 
amid vast and dangerous excitement, both deserved and received 
universal praise. Mr. Ferry was re-elected during this critical 
period, and, as Mr. Chandler's term as Secretary of the Interior 
was then about to close, it was suggested in some quarters that 
Michigan should send him back to the Senate in Mr. Ferry's 
stead. The quality of Mr. Chandler's fidelity as a friend and of 
his estimate of Mr. Ferry's public usefulness were shown in the 
fact that, anxious as he avowedly was to become again a Senator, 
these suggestions obtained from him only peremptory negatives, 
and liis advice and influence contributed to Mr. Ferry's unop- 
posed re-election. Mr. Howard died suddenly at Detroit from 
apoplexy shortly after the close of his Senatorial service. As 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 307 

furtlier illustrating the nature of tlie friendship existing between 

him .-tud his colleague from Michigan, and the estimation in 

which he was held by the eminent men with whom he came in 

contact, this private letter from Mr. Chandler to President 

Grant, with an endorsement made thereon by the latter, is here 

given : 

Washington, Sept. 21, 1870. 

My Dear Sir : Secretary Cox has done my colleague an unintentional 
but a serious injury. 

In 1869 tlie whole Michigan delegation united in recommending the Rev. 
"W. H. Brockway, one of the most popular Methodist clergymen in the State, 
for Indian Agent. 

He was nominated and confirmed, but acquiesced in the transfer of Indian 
affairs to the military. Since the adjournment of Congress, my colleague 
made a personal request to the Secretary of the Interior, that the Rev. Mr. 
Brockway be commissioned as Indian Agent for Michigan. Instead of sending 
the commission, he has sent a man from New Jersey to attend to our Indian 
affairs. This has given offense to the most numerous and powerful religious 
denomination in the State and seriously injured my colleague. I ask for my 
colleague that the New Jersey commission may be immediately revoked, and 
Mr. Brockway may be at once commissioned. . . . 

It is really important that this be done at once. Very respectfully, your 
obedient servant, Z. CHANDLER. 

To President U. S. Grant. 

AUTOGRAPHIC ENDORSEMENT BY PRESIDENT GRANT. 

Referred to the Secretary of the Interior. 

I think Mr. Brockway might with great propriety be assigned to the 
Indian agency in his own State, to which he has once been appointed and 
confirmed. 

He is a minister, and therefore the new rule adopted will not be violated 
by his appointment. 

I want, besides, to accommodate Senator Howard, whom I regard as an 
able supporter of the Republican party and of the Administration. 

Sept. 23, 1870. U. S. GRANT. 

Mr. Chandler was a member of one or two of the special 
Congressional committees appointed to investigate those atrocious 
political murders which made infamous the return of the disloyal 
classes to power in the South. This general subject received no 
small share of his attention : the facts which investigation dis- 



308 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

closed deepened his conviction of the essential barbarity of much 
that passes for civ^ilization in that section, and added to the 
inflexibility of his opposition to a political system, which was 
respoiisihlt for the atrocious crimes of the Ku-Klux-Klan, "the 
Mississippi plan," the Wliite League, and the "rifle clubs," and 
for the h()rril)lc massacres of Colfax and Conshatta, of Hamburg 
and Ellenton. 

Two of his speeches in the Senate in 1871 and 1872 
attracted general attention and were widely repul)lishcd. One of 
them was delivered on January 18, 1871, in reply to Mr, Cas- 
serly of California, who had challenged a comparison between the 
records of the Republican and Democratic parties. In the course 
of twenty minutes Mr. Chandler rapidly sketched the services of 
the Itcpublican party in defeating the Democratic plot to sur- 
render the territories to slavery, in crushing a Democratic 
rebellion, in emancipating four million slaves, in building a 
trans -continental railway to the Pacific coast, in inviting the set- 
tlement of the Great West by a homestead law, in establishing 
the national banking system, in maintaining the public credit 
against Democratic attack, and in reconstructing the South on 
the basis of freedom and loyalty. He closed as follows : 

These measures were carried, not with the Democratic party, but in spite 
of the Democratic party. Sir, we are not to be arraigned lierc and put on 
the defensive, certainly not by that old Democratic party. 

And now, Mr. President, they ask us to do what ? To forgive the past 
and let by-gones be by-gones. You hear on the right hand and on the left, 
from every quarter, ' ' Let by- gones be by- gones ; let us forget the past and rub 
it out." Sir, we have no disposition to forget the past. We have a record of 
which we are proud. \ie have a record that has gone into history. There 
we propose to let it stand. We never i)roposc to blot out that record. There 
are no thousand years in the world's history in which so much has been 
accomplished for human liberty and human progress as has been accomplished 
by this great Republican party in the short space of ten years. Blot out that 
record ? Never, sir, never ! It is a record that will go down in liistory 
through all times as the proudest ever made by any political^ party that ever 
e.xlsted on earth. But, sir, do gentlemen of the Democratic party want to 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 309 

blot out their record ? I do not blame them for wanting to, for that record 
is a record of treason. It, too, has gone into history, and there it must stand 
through all ages. Sir, the young men of this country are looking at these two 
records, and they are making up their minds as to which they desire their 
names to go down to history upon ; and I am happy to say that of the young 
men now coming upon the stage of action, nine out of every ten are joining 
this great Republican party. They desire that their record shall be associated 
with those who saved this great nation, and not with those who allempted 
its overthrow. The day is far distant when that old Democratic party that 
attempted to overthrow this government will again be entrusted with power 
by the people of this nation. . . . Mr. President, if this record of the two 
parties does not please my Democratic friends, I have only to say to them 
that they made it deliberately and they have got to stand by it. 

On June 6, 1872, Mr. Chandler replied in the Senate to that 
part of Mr. Sumner's elaborate attack upon General Grant in 
which he declared that Edwin M. Stanton had said, in his last 
days, "General Grant cannot govern this country." The excess- 
ive egotism, which marred Mr. Sumner's character and which 
inspired that unfortunate speech, was always a cause of impa- 
tience with Mr. Chandler, and this display of it aroused his anger. 
In his reply, he challenged squarely the credibility of Mr. Sum- 
ner's statement. He first read from Mr. Stanton's reported 
speeches, to show that their enthusiastic and repeated commenda- 
tion of General Grant by name proved that Mr. Sumner's 
assertion that Mr. Stanton had also said, " In my speeches I 
"never introduced the name of General Grant; I spoke for the 
"Kepublican cause and the Republican party," was exactly con- 
trary to the fact. He then proceeded : 

Mr. President, I had occasion with Mr. Wade, formerly Senator from 
Ohio, as member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, to see Mr. 
Stanton, I think once a day on an average, during the whole war, and I was 
in the habit of visiting him up to the time of his death, and never, under any 
circumstances, did he express in my presence any but the highest opinion of 
General Grant, both as to his military capacity and as to his civil capacity. 

Mr. President, on the Friday before the death of E. M. Stanton, I had 
occasion to visit him in company with two friends, members of the other 
House, one Hon. Judge Beaman, tlien a member for Michigan, the other 
Judge Conger, now a member from Michigan. We had that day a long inter- 



310 ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 



view of uot loss tluui un hour and a lialf, wherein Mr. Stanton expressed the 
higliest opinion of President Grant, botli as to his military and civil capacity. 
I awaited an interview with these parties before making this statement, and 
their recollection is the same as my own. I have likewise held two or three 
interviews with Senator Wade since then, and his recollection of the e.xpres 
sions of the late E. M. Stanton is equally strong as my own to-day. Mr. 
Stanton said, in the presence of two witnesses, "The country knows General 
Grant to be a great warrior; I know he will prove a great civilian." . . . 

Mr. President, the relations between the President of the United States and 
the late Secretary Stanton were of remarkable kindliness. Never did I hear 
either express any but the highest esteem and regard for the other. ... I 
think the last interview he ever had was the interview with me in the 
presence of these two living witnesses. . . . Surgeon - General Barnes was 
his attending physician at the hour of his death. According to his testimonJ^ 
from the hour I last saw him up to the time of his death, there was no 
change, so far as can be known. 

In another part of this speech the President is arraigned as a great gift- 
taker. Sir, General Grant was a great taker. Few men have ever been as 
eminent as takers. He took Fort Donelson with some twenty or thirty 
thousand soldiers ; and he took Shiloh, and took Vicksburg, and took the 
Wilderness, and took Murfreesboro' and Appomattox and all the rebel mate- 
rial of war. He, with his army, took the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves. 
And, sir, after he had taken the vitals out of the rebellion, he was urged by 
his friends to accept a small donation to take himself out of the hands of 
poverty, a thing that has been done by all nations and by all grateful ])copl('s 
in all ages of the world. Sir, he is to be arraigned as a great gift - taker 
because he accepted the voluntary contributions of a grateful people ! 

Why, sir, there were few men of capacity, few men of fitness to occupy 
positions under this government who did not subscribe, gratefully, anxiously 
subscribe, to that fund to relieve U. S. Grant from his poverty. And yet, he 
is to be arraigned here as a gift -taker, as though that was a crime ! 

Mr. President, there are two classes of people in this world, and we see 
specimens of them both. We have great o-ra-iors and great men of business; 
On this floor our o-ra-tors have occupied the time of this session to the exclu- 
sion of business, and while these o-ra-iors have been wasting the time of this 
body to the detriment of the business of the nation, willing to indulge in 
windy orations at the expense of the government, U. S. Grant, President of the 
United States, has been managing the affairs of this nation better than they 
were ever managed before. While your o-ra-tnrs were here delivering windy 
words, he was paying the national debt faster than these orators (•< uld 
count it. While they were o-rn-tincj, he was negotiating treaties and attending 
to the civil service of the nation. While they were o-ra-ting on this floor 
during the war, he was winning victories in the bloodiest part of the flght 
And now, while they are o-ra-ting on this floor, he is endearing himself lo 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 311 

the hearts of the whole people of this land as no other man ever did. 
Stanton was prophetic ; he is not only great in war, but he is greater as a 
civilian. 

The act of March 3, 1873, which raised the annual salaries 
of Congressmen from $5,000 to $7,500, gave also to this increase 
a retroactive effect and made it apply to the members of Con- 
gress who passed the measure and whose official terms ended 
on that very day. Public opinion did not approve of any aspect 
of this change, but it condemned vehemently the voting by 
Congressmen to themselves of $5,000 each for services already 
rendered and in addition to liberal salaries fixed at the time of 
their acceptance of office. So emphatic were the manifestations 
of popular wrath at both this act and its methods, that the next 
Congress promptly repealed "the salary grab," as it was com- 
moidy called. Mr. Chandler's integrity and good sense kept him 
from any participation in this obnoxious performance. He 
opposed the increase of compensation earnestly in the Senate, 
voted against it at all stages of the contest, and refused to 
accept his " back pay." When the bill had been passed and the 
increased salary had been placed to his credit on the Senate 
books, he went to the Treasury with his colleague and they 
deposited the difference between the old and the new rate to 
the credit of the government, writing the following letter to the 
Secretary of the Treasury : 

Washington, March 28, 1873. 

Sir: Herewith find drafts on the Treasury, one of $3,900.80 payable to 
Z. Chandler, the other of $3,920, to T. W. Ferry, being avails of retroactive 
increase of salary passed during the expiring days of and for the Forty- second 
Congress, and this day placed in our hands by the Secretary of the Senate. 

Not willing to gain what we voted against, we request that the same be 
applied toward the cancellation of any of the six per cent, interest - bearing 
obligations of the nation. Lest such return be distorted into possible reflection 
upon the propriety of dissimilar disposition by others, you will oblige us much 
by giving no publicity to the matter. Very respectfully, yours, 

Z. CHANDLER, 
T. W. FERRY. 



312 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

The amount refunded Avas the exact difference between tlie 
sums allowed under the olil and the increased rate. The new 
law gave an increase of salary for the term, without mileage. 
The old law allowed $5,000 less salary, but gave mileage in 
addition. Mr. Chandler and Mr. Ferry took the amount due 
them under the old system, and returned the additional sum 
which was allowed them under the new. The spirit of scrupu- 
lous honesty which dictated this proceeding is shown in the last 
sentence of the joint letter, asking that publicity might not l)e 
given to their action. They took this step voluntarily and not 
under any constraint from public opinion. 

In the general elections of 1870 and 1872 Mr. Chandler was 
exceedingly active, making the usual number of public addresses, 
and also devoting much time to organization and to the gen- 
eral distribution of political literature. The latter branch of 
party effort had become the special province of the Reijublicau 
Congressional Committee. For more than twenty years there 
have been two distinct executive organizations within the Repub- 
lican party, independent of each other, but always working in 
harmony, namely : The National Committee, and the Congres- 
sional Committee. The latter is composed of a Representative 
in Congress from each State, chosen by the Republican members 
of the respective delegations. No man can serve upon this com- 
mittee unless he holds a seat in Congress, and States which have 
no Republican Congressmen are unrepresented in its member- 
ship. Mr. Chandler and James M. Edmunds were the founders 
of the Congressional Committee as a practical and influential 
working body ; their plans and efforts first made it a power in 
American politics, and it remained under their joint control 
until Mr. Chandler became chairman of the National Committee. 
The special objects which it aimed to accomplish were the 
securing of a uniform treatment of political topics by news- 
papers and speakers throughout the country, and the circulation 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 31b 

(imcler the franking privilege, or otherwise) of instructive and 
timely documents. During the reconstruction era it also devoted 
much attention to the work of Republican organization in the 
South, where special efforts were necessary to form into effective 
voting masses the emancipated slaves, not yet freed from the 
blindness of bondage or familiar with the responsibilities of citi- 
zenship. But the great aim of the committee — all else that it 
did was subsidiary to that — was the circulation of political liter- 
ature. This end it sought to reach by two methods : First, by 
the publication and mailing to individuals and to local comniit- 
tees in all parts of the country of such Congressional speeches 
as treated thoroughly and effectively any phase of tlie current 
political situation; second, by furnishing the Republican press, 
through the medium of weekly sheets of carefully prepared mat- 
ter, with accurate information as to the facts underlying existing 
issues and with suggestions as to their best treatment before the 
people. Obviously this work could be done to much better 
advantage at Washington than elsewhere, for the capital city is 
the focus of the thousand currents of political opinion and the 
depository of the official statistics of the nation. Hence it was 
deemed wise to establish a system of guidance from that point 
of the public discussions of each national campaign, so that 
increased intelligence, cohesion, and efficiency could be given to 
the general attack on the enemy; this idea — which is, in brief, 
that the systematizing of the political education of the people is 
an important element of well -planned party warfare — James 
M. Edmunds always held tenaciously; aided by Mr. Chandler's 
friendship, influence, means, and co-operation, he proved its 
soundness most conclusively. 

Early in his Senatorial service Mr. Chandler was made the 
chairman of this committee, and Mr. Edmunds its secretary. The 
two men were admirably matched. Mr. Edmunds was a natural 
planner, keen in his intuitions, shrewd in observation, and a 



314 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

skillful judge of the bearing and tendency of party and public 
policies. In determining what was the most promising line of 
attack, where the weakest points of the enemy's lines were to 
be found, wherein the strength of any position lay, or what 
strateo-y would make victory the most certain and complete, he 
had no superior. When his acute and experienced judgment was 
re-inforced by Mr. Chandler's vigor in execution, influence with 
public men, and large wealth great results never failed to fol- 
low. These two men quickly made the Congressional Committee 
one of the most powerful agencies of party warfare known in 
American politics. In many campaigns its influence was almost 
literally felt in every Northern township, and its labors were 
not without some effect, more frequently greater than less, in 
unifying and invigorating the contest in every Congressional 
district from Maine to Texas and Florida to Oregon. Its work 
was done quietly, but most thoroughly ; its managers rather 
shunned than courted publicity; and the people at large, who 
were informed and inspired by its labors, knew nothing of its 
methods and activity, hardly the fact of its existence. From 
1866 to 1874 Mr. Chandler was very active in connection with 
this committee, and never failed to provide the agencies and the 
resources for the adequate carrying on of its work. When its 
treasury grew empty his private check made good any deficiency, 
and repeatedly his advances upon its account reached tens of 
thousands of dollars. His confidence in Secretary Edmunds was 
implicit, and the latter's mature recommendations never failed 
because of any lack of means. In 1870 the work of this com- 
mittee was especially productive; its value became much more 
clearly apparent then than had ever l)een the ca*e before, 
and Mr. ('handler repeatedly said to the President and other 
Republican leaders, " Judge Edmunds is the Bismark of this 
campaign." In 1872 Mr. Edmunds first suggested the necessity 
of meeting the Greeley movement by the thorough searching of 



J 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM. 



315 



the files of the New York Tribune and of Mr. Greeley's record, 
for the ample material therein contained which would make 
impossible his support by the Democratic masses. Mr. Chandler 
approved of this plan, and promised that the money needed 
should be forthcoming. Before all the work was completed, his 




JAMES M. EDMUNDS. 

advances had reached nearly $30,000. At times, in the course 
of efforts of this character, Mr. Edmunds guided the pens of 
upward of three hundred writers gathered under his general 
supervision, while the results of their labors informed the edito- 
rial pages of thousands of Republican newspapers, and thus 
reached millions of voting readers. For some time, also, a 



316 ZACHARIAII CHAI^Di^ER. 

montlily periodical named Tlie Bejpubllc was issued, wliicli pre- 
served in durable form the most careful and elaborate articles 
prepared under the committee's supervision. This work of the 
political enlightenment of the people, clearly the most rational 
agency of party warfare, lias never been executed on this con- 
tinent witli the tlioroughness, intelligence and efficiency wliicli 
marked the labors of the Congressional Committee when Mr. 
Cliandler was at its head and Mr. Edmunds was its executive 
officer. 

The man whose name is so closely coupled in these pages 
with that of Mr. Chandler deserves the grateful and lasting 
remembrance of the Republican party. James M. Edmunds was 
a natural politician of the best type. Patriotic instincts and sin- 
cere convictions were interwoven with liis nature. The party 
whose tendencies satisfied those instincts, and whose policies most 
nearly accorded with those convictions, he served loyally and 
with rare capacity; more tlian this, he served it unselfishly. He 
cared nothing for prominence, and never sought after reputation. 
lie made no sj)eeches, he rarely shared in any public demonstra- 
tion, he held no conspicuous positions, he manifested no j^ersonal 
ambition, but for twenty years he was the trusted counselor of 
famous men at the capital, his influence was felt in natiojial 
legislation and j^arty movements, and important events with 
which his name never was and never will be connected received 
the impress of his acute observation and sagacious judgment. 
Especially in Republican political management was he a wise 
and strong " power behind the throne." Mr. Edmunds was a 
native of Western New York, but emigrated to Michigan in 
1831. He was for many years a prominent business man at 
Ypsilanti, Vassar and Detroit, in that State, and was always 
politically active. The Whigs sent him repeatedly to the Legis- 
lature, and made him their ( unsuccessf nl ) candidate for Gover- 
nor in 1847. He was chairman of the Republican State Central 



THIRD SENATORIAL TERM 317 

Committee from 1855 to 1861, and Controller of the city of 
Detroit for two of those years. At the commencement of Mr. 
Lincoln's administration he removed to Washington, and was 
there successively Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
Postmaster of the Senate, and Postmaster of the city of Wash- 
ington. Personally he was a tall and spare man, exceedingly 
plain in his manners and simple in his tastes, utterly without 
either the liking for or faculty of disj)lay, retiring in disposition, 
firm of purpose, of strict integrity, and exact in his dealings and 
habits. Mr. Edmunds's remarkable strength ds a politician con- 
sisted in his experience, in his lack of any personal aspirations, 
in his skill in controlling men and the accuracy of his judg- 
ment as to their motives, and in an almost prophetic ability to 
reason out the probable direction and effect of any given plan 
of action. He became a man whom those charged with great 
responsibilities could profitably and safely consult, and his well- 
considered and shrewd advice often had decisive weight at the 
White House, on the floors of Congress, and in the private coun- 
cils of eminent men. » Outside of the Congressional Committee, 
he did much campaign work in directing organization and sug- 
gesting plans. He was one of the founders of the Union 
League, and directed its operations during the years of its great 
political usefulness in the South. It may be said without exag- 
geration that no single member of the Pepublican party ever 
rendered it services as great and as slightly requited as were 
those of James M. Edmunds. 

Mr. Chandler's close friendship with Mr. Edmunds covered 
a period of nearly half a century, and included an implicit con- 
fidence in the man himself and in his prudence and the sagacity 
of his judgment. The comment made upon their intimacy by 
one who knew them both well was, " Sometimes it seemed to 
" me that no man could be as wise as Mr. Chandler believed 
" that Judge Edmunds was." They were in almost constant 



318 



ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 



consultation upon public questions, their co-operation was ever 
hearty, and this friendship the Senator valued as a priceless pos- 
session. "In death they were not divided;" the dispatch, which 
announced that Mr. Chandler's busy life had ended so suddenly 
in Chicago, came to Mr. Edmunds while infirm in health; 
it affected him powerfully, and his spirit did not pass from 
under the shadow of this blow; within a few weeks his own 
death followed. 




CHAPTER XYIII. 

THE MAINTENANCE OF A SOUND CDERENCY AND THE PUBLIC FAITH. 

jo^IST 18T3 the bubble of an irredeemable currency, inflated 
prices, and wild speculation burst in tlie United States, 
Sijj and the era of universal shrinkage, commercial collapse, 
and industrial stagnation began. The financial condition 
of the government and the people at once became the absorbing 
topic of public discussion, and for five years the questions con- 
nected with the currency and the national credit were those 
which most completely absorbed jDopular attention. Mr. Chand- 
ler's share in the prolonged controversy over the financial prob- 
lem was a conspicuous one ; he came into it equipped with clear 
ideas and a consistent record; he contended for the causes of 
rational finance and public honesty without wavering in the 
face of the strongest opposition, and without any departure from 
sound doctrine; and he saw the courage and persistence of those 
with whom he acted finally rewarded by the enlightenment of 
the people, the restoration of a convertible currency, and the 
raising of the credit of the United States to the highest standard. 
For obvious reasons his record upon all the phases of " the 
financial question" can be most satisfactorily treated in a single 
chapter. That record will show that he began at a point to 
which many other public men were brought only by years of 
education, and it well illustrates the clearness of his conceptions 
of the principles underlying questions connected with what may 
be called the practical departments of statesmanship. 

Not the least of the difticulties, which at the outset con- 
fronted the administration of Abraham Lincoln, was the fact that 



320 ZACIIAIUAII CHANDLER 

the public treasury was empty and the national credit impaired. 
In October, 1800, the government had contracted a five per 
cent, loan of $7,000,000 at a small premium ; four months later, 
a si.x per cent, loan had been sold with difficulty at about ninety 
cents on the dollar. It was true, by way of offset, that the 
country was in a generally prosperous condition. The connnercial 
wrecks of 1857 had disappeared, crops were abundant, and gen- 
eral business had become again remunerative. This was an 
element of national strengtli, but it was not a quickly available 
rcoource. War meant largo immediate expenditure, for which 
the means must be promptly provided. There M'as no time to 
create and organize upon an extensive scale the machinery of 
direct taxation, and some doubts were then felt as to whether 
the i^eople would not grow restive under any general imposition 
of new burdens. The entire stock of coin in the North was 
estimated at but about $121,000,000, while the paper money in 
existence was exclusively composed of the notes of state banks 
organized under diverse and often insecure systems, and much of 
it circulated only at a discount. This condition of the currency 
created the fear that the rapid negotiation of large government 
loans could not be accomplished without the serious derangement 
of the money market ; the withdrawal of considerable sums from 
circulation, even temporarily, business men believed would be 
impossible without; great injury to domestic enterprise and com- 
merce. All these circumstances forced the government (which 
found itself facing absolutely without preparation organized 
rebellion) to resort at once to tlie issue of a national paper cur- 
rency in the form of non - interest - bearing treasury notes of 
small denominations. Congress, at its extra session in July, 
1801, passed the necessary act for this purpose, and $50,000,000 
of these notes ($10,000,000 more were subsequently authorized) 
were placed in ch-culation; originally they were made redeema- 
ble in coin on demand at any United States sub - trcasnry, and 



THE CURRENCY. 321 

thus violated none of the established principles of sound finance. 
This expedient facilitated the negotiation of loans, and provided 
'•the sinews of war" for 1861. But, when Congress met in 
December of that year, it had become plain that the struggle 
would be of indefinite duration, and that past expenditures would 
be greatl}^ exceeded in the months to come. To add to the 
embarrassments of the situation, at about this time the banks of 
the North suspended specie payments, and the Treasury Depart- 
ment was compelled as a matter of self - protection to also stop 
redeeming in coin its own notes then outstanding. It was as a 
means of escape from this emergency, that the first issr.e of 
greenbacks was authorized (by the act of Feb. 25, 1862). These 
notes were not redeemable on demand, but to secure their free 
circulation they were made a "legal tender" for all purposes 
except the payment of duties and of the interest on the public 
debt. The abandonment of the self - operating method of redemp- 
tion and the resort to the compulsion of the "legal tender" 
enactment, as a means of keeping these notes in circulation, 
constituted a step which the Thirty -seventh Congress took with 
extreme reluctance. A small minority of its members resisted 
this measure to the last, but what seemed to be the overshadow- 
ing necessities of the situation and the earnest appeals of 
Secretary Chase finally forced the passage of the law. Mr. 
Chandler was one of those who, without approving of the princi- 
ple of this legislation, still voted for it, on the ground that it 
was essential to the public safety at that moment and justified by 
the urgency of the situation. But he regarded it as a 'temporary 
expedient, a mere plan for an emergency, and not as a perma- 
nent policy. The first act authorized the issue of $150,000,000 
of "greenbacks" and directed the retiring of the $60,000,000 
of treasury notes previously paid out ; this $150,000,000 Mr. 
Chandler believed it was possible to so control and use as to 
avoid the evils inseparable from inflation. But the proposition to 
21 



o5iJi ZACHAIUAH C'irA>JDLER. 

double tlie amount of "greenbacks," wliicli came in less than 
lialf a year from the Treasury ofhcials, he strenuously opposed. 
On June IT, 1S02, lie offered this resolution in tlie Senate: 

Be it Rcsohed by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the amount 
of "legal tender" treasury notes authorized by law shall never be increased. 

On the following day he called up this resolution, and said : 

The effect of the recommendation (to issue $300,000,000 of "legal tender" 
notes) has been most disastrous. The mere recommendation, without any 
action of Congress on the subject, has created such a panic, and has .«o con- 
vinced the moneyed centers of the world that we are to be flooded with this 
paper, that gold has risen in price from two and three-quarters to seven per 
cent, premium. National credit is precisely like individual credit. It is based, 
first, on the ability to pay; and, second, upon the high and honorable principle 
which would induce the payment of a liability. When the proposition to issue 
treasury notes was first made, it was received with great apprehension by 
Congress and by the nation. . . . There was at that time a vacuum for 
$50,000,000 that mxist be filled from some source. * ... I then believed 
that $100,000,000 was requisite, and that $100,000,000 was enough. I believe 
so now. When you issue $100,000,000 of currency you must either find a 
vacuum or you must create one for it. A hundred millions in addition to 
the existing circulation would at any time create great disturbance in the 
financial condition of this country. . . . The moment you authorize the 
issue of $;i00,000,000 your coin will rise to ten or twelve per cent., and your 
notes will fall to 90 or 85. The result will be that the govermnent will be 
paying just so much more for every article it purchases than it would if you 
kept your circulating notes at or about the value of coin. 

Again, the moment you reduce the value of these notes, even to the point 
at which they now stand, even to seven per cent, discount, you drive out of 
circulation the coin of the country. The temptation is too strong to be 
resisted to use something else besides coin for change and for small circula- 
tion. Are we to be reduced to a shin - plaster circulation, as is the case 
to-day all through the South? That will be the result if you force upon 
the country an amount of circulating notes beyond its requirements. . . . 
I consider it a duty we owe to the country, a duty we owe to ourselves, 
to proclaim that under no circumstances shall a currency, irredeemable in 
coin, beyond the present issue of $150,000,000, be thru.st upon the money 
markets of the country. 

I>ut the pressure toward a reckless currency expansion M-as 
irresistible, and the pending bill passed. INFr. Chandler's prophe- 



THE CURRENCY. '32'd 

cies were pi-omptly verified, for the gold premium rose and 
the "shin -plaster currency" made its appearance with but little 
delay. Moreover, these issues only stimulated the thirst they 
were intended to quench, and the general inflation of prices soon 
again produced an apparent scarcity of currency. Early in 18G3 
a demand came from Mr. Chase for authority to increase the 
" greenback " circulation to $400,000,000. Congress granted this 
application, but Mr. Chandler opposed it, saying in the Senate : 

When the first proposition was made to issue $150,000,000 of treasury 
notes, I favored it ; but when the proposition was made to increase that to 
$300,000,000, I opposed it. ... I prophesied what the result of thus thrust- 
ing $800,000,000 of irredeemable paper upon an already overstocked marl^et 
would be. I said it would carry up coin to an unlimited extent. Tlie result 
has proved that my predictions were true. Now it is proposed to issue 
$400,000 000; we propose to thrust them upon an already over - supplied mar- 
ket. . . . It is our duty to protect the people, so far as in our power, 
from this great depreciation in the specie value of the circulating medium, 
and this we can only do by decreasing its volume. 

The general positions which lie stated thus early Mr. Chand- 
ler firmly held throughout every stage of the, subsequent contest 
over the " currency question." He believed that irredeemable 
paper money, although issued by the government itself and made 
a " legal tender " by supreme authority, was an unmixed evil ; 
that only the most imminent peril could justify an even tempo- 
rary resort to its use ; that it ought never to be employed except 
within narrow limits ; that any excessive issues, if made, slioald 
be promptly called in ; that it should be made redeemable on 
demand in coin, " the money of the world," at the earliest pos- 
sible moment ; and that ultimately it should be wholly withdrawn 
from circulation by the issuing power. Accordingly, he opposed 
the propositions to still further increase (to $450,000,000) the 
issue of "greenbacks," supported the principle (while objecting 
to some of the details) of the act of April 12, 1806, ordering 
their steady contraction, and was opposed to the act of Feb. 4, 



324 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

1868, stopping yach contraction. The reduction in the vohime 
of the " greenbacks " he beheved to be an indispensable pre- 
hniinary to the resumption of specie payments, saying in the 
Senate : '' Tlie government will never resume so long as it has 
$400,000,000 of outstanding demand notes." As he opposed 
durino- the war excessive issues of the '' greenbacks," so after 
it closed he steadily favored the reduction of their volume 
with the view to the early restoration of their convertibility and 
their tinal redemption and canceling. The hesitating and halt- 
ing policy, which perpetuated all the unwholesome influences of 
inflation and added to the severity of the inevitable collapse, 
was followed against his protest and in the face of predictions, 
which were inspired by his intimate knowledge of natural com- 
mercial laws, and were verified by the event. 

In the constant discussions of financial measures during the 
war, Mr. Chandler did not earnestly oppose the frequent resort 
to the issue of irredeemable paper without offering as a substi- 
tute policies which he believed would yield relief, equally ade- 
quate, much less jjostly, and far less unwholesome in tendency. 
He proposed to provide the means for meeting the enormous 
expenditures required of the government by more thorough 
direct taxation and by larger loans; and he believed that 
increased imposts, by strengthening the credit of the government, 
would greatly improve its standing as a borrower in the money 
markets of the world. Briefly, the policy which he favored, in 
lieu of the mass of temporary expedients which were adopted, 
was this: (1.) Declare that the issue of "legal tender" treasury 
notes should not exceed $150,000,000, and thus stop their depre- 
ciation by ending all fear of their inflation. (2.) Tax freely, 
and by this means convince the world that the United States 
could and would redeem its treasury notes and pay the interest 
and princii)al of its bonds. (3.) Use the credit thus created to 
borrow on the most advantageous terms, and avoid all measures 



THE CURRENCY. 325 

that might in any way tend to impair the negotiable vahie of, 
or the general confidence in, the national securities. He devel- 
oped these general ideas repeatedly in his speeches and votes, 
while qaestioas relating to them were before Congress. On May 
30, 1862, he said in the Senate: 

We voted at an early day in the session tbat we would raise a tax of 
$150,000,000 from all sources. . . . What was the result of that vote 'i 
Oa the very day that that solemn pledge was given to the country and the 
world . . . the six per cent, bonds of the United States stood at 90 cents 
on the dollar in the city of New York. To-day with an expenditure of 
more than a million dollars a day, . . . under this simple pledge in 
advance, of what you would do, your bonds have gone up from 90 cents 
to above par, and are now sought for, not only at home but abroad. If you 
violate that solemn pledge given to your country and to the world, what 
will be the effect on your securities ? Let Congress violate that pledge, and 
you will see your bonds not only not worth 10 4^ but you will see them below 
85. . . . The world abroad does not believe your simple asseveration that 
you would impose a tax, but the people of this Union do and consequently 
they themselves have carried your bonds from 90 to 104|. But the world 
does not take them. Impose your tax ; carry out your solemn pledges, and you 
will see your bonds eagerly sought for in the moneyed centers of the world. 
. . . I hope we shall not only carry out this pledge which we have given, 
but I care not if we exceed it. . . . Under this pledge . . . you are 
now able to borrow money at six per cent, instead of seven and three ■ tenths, 
and you are to day reaping the reward of your pledge of good faith. 

All just tax measures Mr. Chandler vigorously supported, as 
furnishing the solid basis of national credit and public integrity, 
and time established the ability and the willingness of the people 
to sustain this war burden. Had the heavy taxation been accom- 
panied by an adherence to sound principles in the management 
of the currency and a resort to borrowing when needed, it 
would Ijave reduced the cost of conquering the rebellion by at 
least $1,000,000,000, probably by nearly one -half. 

The maintenance of the public credit at a high standard was 
exceedingly important during the war, but it was of no less 
moment after the collapse of the rebellion, and is as great 
to ■ day as it has ever been. On no public question was Mr. 



326 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

Chandler more vigilant and outspoken than on this. Any attack 
on the integrity of the national promise represented by the 
bonds of the United States he denounced vigorously, whether it 
it took on the form of the taxation of these securities, or of 
propositions to pay them in depreciated currency, or of l)a]d 
repudiation. On May 20, 1862, he said, upon the proposition to 
tax the bonds: 

I believe it to be for tlie best interest of the government — not for the 
benefit of moneyed men, not for the benefit of moneyed institutions, but for 
tlie benefit of this government — to proclaim in advance that we will never 
tax these bonds. I believe we shall receive the quid pro quo now, to -day, or 
whenever we negotiite. It is for our interest, not for the interest of moneyed 
institutions, to offer these bonds. Here is the best security in the world, and 
we proclaim to the world, if you take these bonds they shall never be taxed. 
I believe we shall realize more to day, or to-morrow, or this year, or next year, 
for these bonds by thai course, than if we were to impose a tax of one and 
a- half, or three, or five, or any other per cent. These bonds are negotiable. 
We are the negotiators. They are not in the hands of third parties. We are 
to borrow for our daily wants, . . . and I believe it to be for the interest 
of the government to declare in advance that there shall never be a tax of 
any sort, kind or description upon these bonds which we are now offering to 
the world in such enormous quantities. 

Mr. Chandler said, in 18(18, in a public address at Battle 
Creek, Mich., (on August 21): 

The national debt is a sacred obligation upon this government, and it is 
to be paid, every dollar of it. But it is a Democratic debt, every dollar. If 
anybody should talk of repudiation it shovild be the Republican party, Avho had 
no instrumentality in creating it. But did you ever hear a Republican talk of 
repudiating it ? It is a large debt. It is the price we pay for government. 
Is the government worth the cost ? If it is, then the debt is not only an 
honest debt, but it has been worthily contracted. The Democrats propose to 
pay this debt in greenbacks, and they propose to pay the greenbacks by 
issuing more grecnliacks. What do we gain by that ? Issue $2, .")()(), 000, 000 
more greenbacks and they would not be worth the i)aper they arc printetl on, 
because the supply would flood the country' and be greater than the demand. 
. . . It is a mea.sure of fraudulent repudiation. In five or ten years the 
country might recover financially, but we would never wipe out the national 
disgrace that would follow that rcnudiation. It means the absolute annihila- 
tion of ail values. These extra issues would be utterlv worthless. 



THE CURRENCY. 327 

Mr. Chandler accordingly voted for the act of March 18, 1869, 
which formally declared that the United States would redeem 
its " greenbacks " and pay the interest and principal of its long 
term bonds in coin, and which was simply a new pledge that 
the government would do what it was already honorably bound 
to do both by fair constructioji of its own legislation and by 
the explicit and repeated promises of its agents. The full main- 
tenance of the public faith, both as a matter of honor and of 
wise policy, he always upheld, and saw his arguments sustained 
and his prophecies made good in the steady improvement of the 
nation's credit and the refunding of its debt at greatly reduced 
rates of interest. 

Of the national banking system Mr. Chandler was an origi- 
nal supporter. He regarded it as certain to become a lasting 
feature of the fiscal system of the United States, and as destined 
to ultimately furnish the jiaper money of the Union. The 
uniformity of its circulation, the security aiforded to bill - holders, 
and the excellent results attending its method of governmental 
supervision, he considered as unanswerable arguments in favor 
of its permanent maintenance. It was his firm opinion that 
ultimately these banks would furnish all the national currency, 
and that their notes would supj)lant the "greenbacks." If 
national banking should be kept free, and redemption in coin 
required by law, he believed that the result would be a 
thoroughly -secured and readily - convertible paper currency, whose 
volume would be controlled by commercial demand and not by 
legislative caprice or political agitation, and which would lubri- 
cate and not obstruct the machinery of trade. 

When the national bank bill first made its appearance in 
Congress, Mr. Chandler (in February, 1863) favored it as a 
measure of relief offering a quick market for $300,000,000 of 
government bonds, and as sure to supply "a better currency 
than the local banks now furnish." Holding the views he did. 



328 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

lie supported the measures which promised to substitute bank 
notes for "greenbacks," although he opposed those which contem- 
plated iiny expansion of the aggregate volume of botli issues. 
For instance, in 1870, when the inflation element in Congress 
introduced a bill to add §52,000,000 to the national bank circu- 
lation ( banking was not then free, it not being deemed prudent 
to leave the issue unlimited while all the paper money was 
irredeemable), he offered on January 31 an amendment to make 
the sum it^lOO,000,000 and to withdraw " greenbacks " to an 
amount equal to the bank notes issued under this provision. lie 
said: 

The simple effect of my proposition, if adopted, will be to keep the circu- 
latiou to a dollir where it is. If no new banks are started, no greenbacks are 
witlulrawn, and if banks are started anywhere, then an amount of greenbacks 
must be withdrawn equal to the amount of national bank bills put in circula- 
tion. Should the whole $100,000,000 be taken we will be just $100,000,000 
nearer to specie payments than we are to-day, . . . and in the meantime 
the amount of national currency will not be changed in the slightest degree. 

Mr. Sumner : There is salvation in that. 

Mr. Cii.\ndler • Of course there is salvation in it ; that is why I offer it. 

All proposals made at the time to increase the aggregate 
paper circulation he resisted, saying : 

That is a step in the wrong direction. ... If j'ou let it go out that 
this is to be the policy of Congress, you will see gold go up imniediately, 
. . . because it will show that the Congress of the United States is in 
favor of expansion instead of a reduction of the currency. 

After the panic of 1873, when there was such a universal 
clamor for further inflation, and scores of propositions M'cre 
introduced to add many millions to the existing volume of 
''greenbacks" and of bank notes, Mr. Chandler again insisted at 
all proper opportunities that resumption was the most essential 
step toward linancial soundness, and that the substitution of bank 
notes for "greenbacks" would aid greatly both in reaching and 
in maintaining specie payment. On Feb. 18, 1874, he offered an 



THE CURRENCY. 



329 



amendment to a pending bill, directing "the Secretary of the 
" Treasury to retire and destroy one dollar in ' legal tender ' notes 
"for each and every dollar of additional issue of bank notes," 
and spoke upon this proposition at length. He did not urge it 
as a complete remedy for the existing situation (contraction and 
resumption would alone furnish that), but he said: 

This is a step in the right direction. In 1865 I advocated upon this floor 
the substitution of banlc notes for greenbacks as a step toward the resumption 
of specie payments, and a rapid step toward that resumption. I am now isim- 
ply advocating what I advocated then. 

Mr. Chandler's wishes on this subject were not gratified at 
that time nor during his life, but before his death he saw the 
demand that the Treasury should cease to be a bank of issue 
approved by the soundest financial sentnnent of the country. 
His belief, that the paper money of the Union should be fur- 
nished by commercial institutions operating under ] roperly regu- 
lated governmental supervision, that is, by the national banking 
system perfected and enlarged, has been long held by the 
ablest and clearest students of monetary problems in the United 
States; it is to-day constantly growing in popular strength, and 
the result it aims at will form part of any durable settlement of 
" the currency question." 

In 1873 the vacillating and halting financial policy of the 
nation — which had tried and abandoned contraction, and while 
looking toward the resumption of specie payments had, in fact, 
retreated" from it — bore fruit in speculative collapses, followed 
by a panic in business circles and widespread commercial disaster. 
Congress met amid the crumbling of unsound enterprise, and 
was called upon to meet a terrified demand for a renewed infla- 
tion of the already excessive volume of irredeemable paper. To 
cure the fever, men demanded more miasma. To repair the ruin, 
which all history proved to be the natural result of an over- 
supply of currency, it was proposed to still further increase that 



330 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

supply. Measures to this end were introduced at once, and 
pushed with great vehemence. They were sustained by a misled 
but powerful public sentiment, which was especially strong in 
the West and influenced the great mass of that section's repre- 
sentatives at AVashington. Mr. Chandler never served his country 
better than he did in that hour. Unmoved by the clamor about 
him, and refusing to listen to the cries of even his own people 
when they demanded false leadership, he firmly resisted every 
measure of inflation and every suggestion that added embarrass- 
ments to the business of the future, or increased the difficulties 
of preserving the public faith. The pressure in favor of the 
inflation bill which President Grant vetoed was unusually strong. 
The Western Congressmen were almost a unit for its passage, 
but no solicitations, no force of numbers, prevented Mr. Chandler 
from opposing and denouncing it. His speech in opposition to 
this bill (on Jan. 20, 1874) commenced with one of his terse 
sentences, which went straight to the marrow of the situation, 
and furnished a motto for the cause he championed. It was, 
" We need one thing besides more money, and that is better 
money." This phrase furnished the text for many addresses and 
editorials, and stood upon the title-page of the weekly circular 
issued by the friends of a sound currency in Boston during the 
controversy which preceded the passage of the Resumption act 
of 1875. In the same speech Mr. Chandler said : 

To insure prosperity we on<2:ht to have something permanent, .sometliing 
substantial. Then the business of the country will conform itself to the facts 
and regulate itself accordingly. This panic (of 1873) was exceptional, as 
indeed all panics are. A panic among men is precisely like a panic among 
animals. I once saw 2,000 horses stampede, and they were just as the same 
number of thousands of men would be in a panic. It is the feeling of 
animal fear, and one encourages the other, and so it goes on until it becomes 
a perfect insane rush for something, nobody knows what. Prior to this late 
panic, as is well known, many of our capitalists had over -invested in wild 
railroad schemes ; they had undertaken to do impossible things ; when the 
panic struck them it ought not to have had the least effect outside of Wall 



THE CURRENCY. 33] 



street and operators in railroad stocks. But the panic swept like a tornado 
all over the land, affected values everywhere, values of all kinds. Whoever 
had money in bank sought to draw it out and hide it away. The panic was 
universal, and yet this nation was never more prosperous than it was the day 
before the panic struck. And to-day there is as much money in the Union 
as there was then. Every dollar that was here then is here now. Besides, 
the enormous borrowers, the men who would pay any price for money — one- 
half per cent, a day, one per cent, a day, or any other given price — have failed 
anl gone out of the market. And now the money is seeking the legitimate 
cliauuels of commerce for interest and use. . . . The best time for the 
resumption of specie payment that has occurred since the suspension was 
in 1865, at the close of the war, when gold had fallen from over 200 to 123. 
In a few days values had shrunk, and the people of the nation were compara- 
tively out of debt, and were ready then for a resumption of specie payments, 
but the government was not. The government owed more than |1, 000, 000, 000, 
that was maturing daily in the shape of compound interest notes, seven- 
thirties and other obligations that must be funded or disposed of. Hence 
the government was not prepared for specie payments at that tune, although 
the people were. . . . From that day to this we have been drifting 
and floating further and further away every hour from the true path — the 
resumption of specie payments. I have advocated from the first the earli- 
est possible payment in coin. I believe there is no other standard of value 
that will stand the test, and I believe the time has arrived, or very nearly 
arrived, for coming to it. I have not the same timidity in fixing a date 
that some of my friends on this floor have. I believe that if we were to 
resolve to-day that we would resume the payment of our greenbacks in coin 
on the 1st day of January, 1875, and authorize the Secretary of the Treasury 
to borrow $100,000,000 in coin to be used in the redemption of the green- 
backs, and sell no more gold until the 1st of January, 1875, on that day we 
would have |'200,000,000 of coin in the Treasury for the redemption of the 
greenbacks. I am not particular as to date. I merely suggest the 1st of 
January, 1875. But I would accept an earlier date than that if it were 
deemed more advisable, but certainly I would not extend it more than six 
months thereafter. . . 

It is no part of the business of this government to issue an irredeemable 
currency. We cannot afford to place ourselves beside the worn ■ out govern- 
ments of Europe — we cannot afford to place ourselves on a par with Hayti 
and Mexico We are too rich a people to do it ; and it is a disgrace to us 
as a nation that we have allowed it to continue one single hour beyond the 
hour when it was in our power to remedy the wrong. 

The proposition to increase our paper currency is a step in the wrong 
direction, and I, for one, am utterly opposed to taking even one step in the 
wrong direction when I know what the right direction is. 



332 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER 

As part of the same general discussion, Mr. Cliandler made 
a carefully prepared financial speech in the Senate on Feb. 18, 
1874, in which he first graphically sketched the history of "wild- 
cat banking " in Michigan, and then said : 

After tha failure of these banks the cry was still, "More money ; and we 
must have more money ; the country is suffering for more money." The cry 
was responded to, and more money was furnished. The Treasury of the 
Stale of Michigan, alrea^ly owing $5,000,000, undertook to furnish more 
money, and the State issued treasury notes ad libitum, and the "more money" 
men got more money until the value of the state treasury notes, which have 
been paid to the last dollar at par, ran down to thirty - seventy cents on the 
dollar ; and almost every city in the State, including the city of Detroit, 
responded to the cry of "more money," and issued shin - plasters ; and indi- 
viduals, realizing that "more money" was needed, issued shin-plasters. So 
the State of Michigan was flooded with more money. 

Well, sir, you can .see at a glance that the State of ^Michigan needed more 
money. We had as a people been speculating almost to a man. It was not 
confined to the merchant, the banker, the man of wealth ; but the mechanic, 
the farmer, the laborer, every man who could buy a piece of property of any 
sort, kind, or description, bought it, ran in debt, laid out a town, sold the 
lots, gave a mortgage, and then wanted "more money" to pay that mortgage. 

When the collapse came it was absolute ; there was no mistake about it ; 
the collapse was perfect. Then the people of Michigan had enough of "more 
money ; " and when our constitutional convention met, as it did a few years 
later, they put into the constitution a clause prohibiting the Legislature for- 
ever from chartering a bank or affording the means of furnishing "more 
money;" and the people acquiesced in it. They had enough of the "more 
money" cry; and tor twenty -five years there was no more cry in the State 
of Michigan for irredeemable money. . . . The losses to which I have 
referred did not fall upon the moneyed men of the State of Michigan, the 
men who were in sound condition. They fell upon the laboring man, the 
farmer, and the mechanic. They fell upon the men who could least afford to 
submit to the loss. So it is now. Why, sir, our values are fi.\cd by a foreign 
market, and in coin. There is not a bushel of corn or a bushel of wheat 
raised in Indiana, or Illinois, or Michigan, the value of which is not lixed by 
the foreign value in coin of that particular article. When you enhance the 
cost of production by an inferior currency you put that loss upon the pro- 
ducer, and the loss falls not upon the wealthy man, but upon the laborer and 
producer. Money will take care of itself all over the world. If it is not safe m 
this country, it will find a country where it is safe, and it will go to that 
country, no matter where that may be. Hence, capital requires no protection 
whatever from this body ; money will take care of itself ; but the poor man. 



THE CURRENCY. 333 



the laboring man, the man who submits to all the losses from this depreciated 
currency, is the man who suffers all the pain and all the injury that are 
inflicted by this false legislation. . . . 

Now, sir, we come to the crash of 187;J. On the loth day of September, 
1873, this nation was in a more prosperous condition than perhaps it had 
been for the last twenty -five years. Every branch of industry was prosperous, 
every interest of the people was prosperous ; but in a day, at the drop of the 
ball at twelve o'clock on the 16th of September, the panic struck. "What 
produced this tremendous panic and crash in this great and prosperous coun- 
try ? It was over - speculating in railroad securities. It was by men under- 
taking to do what it was utterly impossible for them to do, to wit. for 
individuals to float untold millions by their own credit ; and when the people 
became alarmed for fear the crash would come, the crash came, and there 
was no salvation from it. But, sir, on that very self -same day the nation 
was more prosperous than it had been for the last twenty years in all its 
interests — business, banking and every other. The crash ought not to have 
extended one yard beyond Wall street and the few producers of railroad iron 
who were nxinufacturing for these defunct railroads. But, sir, the panic was 
so great that it spread until it became universal, and values sank until there 
seemed to be no bottom, and everybody was affected throughout the length 
and breadth of this broad land. 

But, Mr. President, that panic was of short duration. Many failures took 
place, and particularly among stock and railroad operators ; but the main 
business of the country still went on with a few notable exceptions. Some 
manufacturers stopped for the want of money ; others stopped for the want of 
credit. The men that had been issuing their paper without intending to pay 
it, issuing millions of dollars of paper which they knew they could not meet 
at maturity, trusting in luck to meet their obligations — those men cannot 
borrow money ; their lines are full everywhere ; nobody will loan them 
money ; but, sir, upon undoubted security money is to - day cheaper than it 
has been at any time for the last twenty years. These great borrowers, with- 
out the expectation of paying at maturity, are to-day all out of the market. 
No man will loan money to a person who does not pay at maturity. Every 
man that desires to borrow money for legitimate business can borrow it to - day 
cheaper than he could borrow it at any time in the last twenty years. Sir, 
you may legislate for this class who have over -speculated, you may legislate 
for the benefit of the men who have built factories, built steamboats, built 
mills, bought mills, bought mines, bought everything for sale, and given their 
paper knowing they could not meet it unless they could borrow the money 
over again ; you may legislate them $100,000,000 or $1,000,000,000, and you 
will not help them in the slightest degree. . . . 

Now, Mr. President, I will ask the attention of the Senate while I show 
the effect upon the purchasing value of money of issuing your greenback cir- 
culation from the day it was first issued to the present time. In 1863 we 



334 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER 



commenced the issue of greenbacks. In January, 1802. the premium on 
gold was 2.5 per cent.; in February it was 3.5; in March, 1.8; in April, 
1.5 ; in May, 1.3 ; in June, 6.5 , m July, 15.5 ; in August, 14.5 ; in Septem- 
ber, 18.5; in October, 28.5, in November, 31.1 ; in December, 32.3. It will 
be remembered that the then circulating medium ( which was at that tim-^. 
state bank notes) amounted to about .$200,000,000. This circulation was 
increased during the year 1862 by the addition of $147,000,000 in greenbacks, 
and that increase of circulation carried the value of gold from 102.5 on the 
1st of January to 132.3 on the 31st day of December following. 

In 1863 the necessities of llie government compelled us to increase the 
greenback circulation to a j^et larger extent. We issued during that year 
$263,500,000 additional, carrying up our greenback circulation to $411,200,000, 
in addition, of course, to our bank circulation, whatever it may have been. 
During the montli of January of that year the premium on gold was 45.1 per 
cent.; during February, 60 5; March, 54.5 ; April, 51.5 ; May, 48.9 , June, 44.5; 
July, 30.6; August, 25.8, September, 34.2; October, 47.7, November, 48; 
December, 51.1. In other words, tlie average rate of premium upon gold 
during that whole year was 45.2 per cent. I hold in my hand a paper show- 
ing the cash value of this emission for 1863. The emission of greenbacks at 
tliat time Avas $411,200,000 The average premium on gold was 45 2 per cent. 
The actual cash purchasing value of thai $411,000,000, during tlie year 1863, 
was $283,195,000, and that was the whole purchasing value of that money 
during that year. 

Then we come to the next year, 1864. That year, we increaced our circu- 
lating medium by the addition of $237,900,000, making tlie whole amount 
$()t'.), 100,000. In 1864 the price of gold was, in January, 155.5; February, 
158 6, March, 162.6 ; April, 172.7: May, 176,3 ; June, 21^.7; July, 2.58.1 , or less 
than 40 cents on the dollar in coin for your greenbacks after you had carried 
the amount up to $649,000,000. In August the price was 254.1; in Septem- 
ber, 222 5 , in Octol)er, 207.2 ; in Noveml)er, 233.5 , in December, 227.5. Tliere 
is not a man here who does not remember, nor is there a farmer or mechanic 
throughout the length and breadth of the land who does not remember, that 
he tlien paid 60 cents for cotton goods that he had been in the liabit of buy- 
ing for 12^ cents, and that he paid for everything else in the same ratio. The 
merchant took care that he met with no loss ; but the laboring man, the 
farmer, the man of muscle, was the man who submitted to this great loss, 
while the merchant and while every man with money took care of himself. 

During that year the average price of gold was 203.3 per cent., or your 
money was a fraction less than 48i cents on the dollar during the whole year. 
You had out that year $649,100,000, and the value of gold was 203 3, and 
the purchasing value of your $649,100,000 was $319,281,000, and that was the 
whole- of it. 

In 1805 you again increased the volume of your circulating modium by 
the amount of $49,800,000 ; making the whole amount of your circulation 



THE CURRENCY. 335 

$698,900,000. During the month of January, 1865, the price of gold was 
216.2; during February, 205.5; in March, 173.8; in April, 148.5; and after 
that it stood at 135.6, 140.1, 142.1, 143.5, 143.9, 145.5, 147, 146.2. The aver- 
age of the year 1865 was 157.3 ; and what was the purchasing value of your 
greenbacks that year ? Every man here will remark that that year we were 
disposing of our bonds at the rate of hundreds of millions of dollars a mouth; 
money was passing through the Treasury almost without limit. We had 
$1,000,000,000 that must be negotiated, nnd negotiated at once — seven - thirties 
and compound - interest notes and other floating liabilities that must be funded; 
and during that year the war had closed, and while we were negotiating at this 
enormous rate, the price of gold fell to 153.3, and during that year the pur- 
chasing value of our circulation attained a higher rate than during any other 
year. That year, although our circulation of greenbacks was $698,900,000, 
and the premium on gold 57.3, the actual purchasing value of that $698,900,- 
000 was $444,310,000. 

In 1866 we retired $90,000,000, leaving $608,900,000, and the average pre- 
mium on gold that year was 40.9 per cent. The purchasing value of the 
$608,900,000, with the premium on gold at 40.9, was $432,150,000. 

The next year, 1867, we retired $72,300,000, and premium on gold fell to 
38.2. So we went on reducing until we got down to $400,000,000, and then 
we struck 14.9, 11.7, 12.4 and 14.7 as the premium on gold. There the mat- 
ter has stood, and I have here from year to year, the purchasing value for 
each year. . . . 

Mr. President, what we want is purchasing value, because the intrinsic 
value is measured by the purchasing value. There is not a bushel of wheat 
that goes from your State or from mine the purchasing value of which is not 
fixed by the gold value on the other side of the Atlantic. We are shipping 
millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions of our agricultural pro 
ducts every year, and the value of these products is fixed in gold on the other 
side of the Atlantic ; and yet by this increase of circulation we enhance the 
value of everything that the producer raises, but when the product comes to the 
market its value must be fixed by its price in gold across the Atlaulic. . . . 

Mr President, I know of no way to substitute the Treasury of the United 
States for the banking experience of the last ten centuries. We have the 
experience of the past, w^e have the experience of our own nation, we have 
the experience of the world. Now, do we propose to throw aside this experi- 
ence, and to launch our boat upon a wild and uncertain sea, an ocean of 
expansion and no payments ? 

Sir, there are very few persons within the range of my acquaintance 
who desire expansion of an irredeemable currency. Certainly the people of 
Michigan have had abundance of experience of that kind. But wherever 
you go you will find two classes of men who are making a great noise about 
"more money." One is the speculator, the impecunious speculator, who has, 
perhaps, bought real estate and given a mortgage, and thinks that his on'y 



336 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER 

clmnce is to reduce the value of your currency until it falls so low that the 
people would rather take his land than hold your money ; and the other is 
the man who lias issued his paper without intendin;^ to pay when it matures, 
and who can borrow no more money upon any terms until he pajs what he 
already owes. 

On the 14th of January, 1ST5, tlic act for the resumjDtion 
of specie payments became a law. Mr. Chandler was a member 
of the Senate when this bill passed- He had but one objection 
to it; the time fixed for resumption was unnecessarily remote. 
Neither present exigency nor needed preparation required the 
delay, and he believed it to be oj)posod alike to economy, 
patriotism, and public honor. But it was the best that could be 
secured ; insistence upon an earlier date would have divided the 
friends of resumption, prevented the passage of any bill at that 
time, and postponed the day of specie payments. For these 
reasons Mr. Chandler favored the measure, and a few weeks later, 
when he retired from the Senate, it was with the consciousness 
that he had only voted for an irredeemable and inconvertible 
currency to meet the imperious exigencies of civil war, that 
he had opposed its undue expansion, that he had sustained 
every measure of contraction calculated to lessen the difficulties 
of the return to a sound basis, and that he finally had crowned 
his Senatorial career by support of a measure which insured 
the return of the government to ihe constitutional standard of 
values. 




CHAPTEK XIX. 

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT. 

)IGHTEEN Hundred and Seventy -four was a year of 
unusual political disaster. The prevalent commercial 
depression both naturally and seriously injured the party 
in power, and this and other causes combined to pro- 
duce a general relaxation of Republican vigor, which bore its 
inevitable fruit in a series of damaging reverses in the fall elec- 
tions throughout the Union. The contest in Michigan was 
complicated by an organized movement on the part of the 
opponents of Prohibition to secure a repeal of that State's 
stringent law against the liquor traffic, and to more surely reach 
that end its License League formed an alliance with the Democ- 
racy, by which the latter was greatly aided. Tiie result was that 
the Republican plurality upon the State ticket was reduced to 
5,969 in a total vote of 221,006, that three of the nine Con- 
gressional districts were carried by the Opposition, and that a 
Legislature was chosen in which the Re23ul)lican majority upon 
joint ballot was but ten. Upon this bod}^, so closely divided, 
devolved the choice of an -United States Senator. To a man of 
Mr. Chandler's positive qualities and aggressive methods an 
active public life was impossible without creating strong enmi- 
ties, and the attention which, had he been more subtle, lie 
would have given to conciliating hostility his direct nature pre- 
ferred to devote to showing appreciation of friendship. The 
equality of parties in the Legislature, and the passing disposition 
among Republicans to look with disfavor upon what has been 
since termed "stalwart leadership," supplied the local opposition 



338 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

to Mr. Chandler with tlie looked - for opportunity for successfully 
resistin<if his re-election. Michi<>;an Republicanisni as a whole 



eput 

gave hitn its nsual hearty support, and, so far as the contest was 
waged within the recognized lines of partisan warfare, his per- 
sonal triuin])h was flattering and signal, in the regular caucus 
lie received fifty -two votes against five ballots cast for three 
other candidates, and his nomination was made unanimous with 
but one dissenting voice. A small Republican minority refused 
to participate in the caucus, and after a prolonged and exciting 
struggle a combination was formed between six of these men 
and the solid Democratic and Liberal Opposition, which ( on the 
second ballot in the legislative joint convention) gave precisely 
the necessary majority of all the votes cast to Isaac P. Cliris- 
tiancy, then one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of ]\[ichi- 
gan. Mr. Christiancy was an original Republican, but had in 
some instances in the past so far satisfied the Democrats by his 
public course that he had been once re-elected to the Supreme 
Bench without opposition, his name having been placed at the 
head of the Democratic State ticket after his nomination b}^ his 
own party. This fact materially facilitated tlie coalition Mliich 
secured Mr, Chandler's defeat. Like results in pending Sena- 
torial contests in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska showed 
that more than merely local influences had contributed to bring 
about this event. 

Mr. Chandler, with that strong faith in his own position 
which was so useful a characteristic of the num, did not believe 
that his defeat was possible until it was accomplished. His dis- 
appointment was keen, but he bore it manfully, and, assuring 
his friends that he should be " a candidate for that seat when 
Judge Christiancy's term ended,"'' he started for Washington to 
close up his eighteen years of continuous Senatorial service. 
Many and sincere were the expressions of grief among earnest 
Republicans everywhere at what seemed to be the abrupt termiua- 



IN THE CABINET. 339 

tiou of the public career of so influential a man. Mr. Chandler 
himself was as strongly affected by his fear that Republican- 
ism might have received a severe blow from the method by 
which his re-election had been prevented as by any sense of 
mere personal failure. In a letter written in the following 
March, in response to an invitation from the great majority of 
the Republican legislators of Michigan to address them on polit- 
ical topics, he said : 

Tliaakiug you cordially for your continued confidence, I assure you most 
sincerely that when I enlisted in the Republican ranks it was for the whole 
war. which, I trust, is to be continued until tlie complete and final triumph 
of Republican principles, the pacification of the wliole people, and the estab- 
lishment of equal and exact justice for all men in every section of our com- 
mon country. It will be my pride to prove to my friends, and to my 
enemies, if there are such, that I can be useful as a private soldier. In all 
the future contests of the Republican party with its opponents you may order 
me into the ranks with full confidence that I will respond with all my time, 
if need be, and with such ability as I can command. . . . We shall not 
yield in the forum the great principles which have triumphed in the field, 
nor shall we further waste in internal strife the strength which should be 
organized against our opponents. I have faith in the future of our country, 
because of my confidence in the continued success of the Republican party. 

Ultimately it became evident that his defeat in 1ST5 Avas not 
a personal calamity , he himself afterward saw that it had opened 
the way for him to broader fields of public usefulness, and that 
in what then seemed to be a fall he had in fact only "stumbled 
up stairs." 

After the termination of Mr. Cliandler's third Senatorial 
term ( on March 3, 1875 ), his name was connected, botli in cur- 
rent rumor and in the deliberations of influential men, with 
several prominent positions. It was at one time predicted that 
ho would be nominated for the St. Petersburg embassy, and at 
another tliat he would succeed Mr, Bristow as Secretary of the 
Treasury. Ground was not lacking for both reports, but the 
appointment which was actually made involved a far more com- 
plete test of his faculty of administration than would have 



340 ZACHAIIIAH CHANDLEll. 

attended either of the others. The Interior Department is the 
most complex division of the executive brancli of the government. 
A great diversity of interests are under its charge, and its duties 
are dissimilar, widely ramified, and encumbered with a perplexing 
multiplicity of details. During President Grant's second term 
this DepartiULMit, notwithstanding the personal honesty of Secre- 
tary Columbus Delano, had fallen into bad repute. It sheltered 
abuses and frauds which tainted the atmosphere, but were not 
hunted down and removed by its chiefs. From the scandals 
which this state of affairs created, Mr. Delano finally sought 
escape by a resignation, which took effect on Oct. 1, 1875. Gen- 
eral Grant, who was determined to appoint to tlie place a man 
whose integrity, sagacity and vigor should make it certain that 
he would not tolerate incompetence and rascality among his sub- 
ordinates, tendered the position to Mr. Chandler. After some 
hesitation, and no little urging by his friends, that gentleman 
accepted, and on Oct. 19, 1875, his commission as Secretary of 
the Interior was executed and sent to him. (His nomination 
was, on the meeting of Congress in December, promptly con- 
firmed by the Senate, all of the Republican and three of the 
Democratic Senators voting affirmatively, with only six Demo- 
crats recorded in the negative). Mr. Chandler entered at once 
upon the discharge of his new and difficult duties. No man 
could have had less of the professional " reformer " about him 
— in fact he was not cliary of expressing the most contemptuous 
skepticism concerning much that paraded itself as " reform " — 
but the exemplification which he gave of practical reform was 
at once thorough and brilliant. Without ostentation, -without the 
faintest savor of cant, he went at his work in Tinpr^tentious, 
business-like, manful, and clear-sighted fashion. A firm believer 
himself that ''corruption wins not more than honesty,"'' he gave 
durable lessons on that theme in every bureau of the Interior 
Department. 



m THE CABINET. 



341 



The first step of Mr. Chandler's administration was the infu- 
sion of new blood. He applied to James M. Edmunds for aid 
in the selection of a Chief Clerk, and was by him advised to 
tender that important position to Alonzo Bell, then holding a 




E IXTEKIOK DEPAETMEXT.' 



place in the Treasury. What followed illustrates some of Mr. 
Chandler's methods of transacting business : 

Mr. Bell, at his desk in the Winder Building, received a 



♦This massive edifice is popularly known as 'The Patent Office," because its main 
halls are occupied by the magnificent model rooms of the Bureau of Patents. 



342 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

dispatch on the afternoon of Nov. 8, 1875, wliich read: "The 
Secretary of the Interior desires to see yon." On the next 
morning at nine o'clock he was in waiting in the ante - chamber 
of Secretary Chandler's office, and shoi'tly thereafter that gen- 
tleman entered. In a few moments Mr. Bell was snmmoned 
into his room, and Mr. Chandler said, " Good morning, Mr. Bell. 
"I suppose General Cowen (the then Assistant Secretary) has 
''told you what the business with you is?" Mr. Bell answered, 
" I have had a very pleasant talk with him, but there has been 
no business alluded to by ns." Mr. Chandler then said, " I have 
" concluded to appoint you Chief Clerk of the Interior Depart- 
" ment ; will you accept ? " " Yes, sir," was the reply. " Yery 
well," said Mr. Chandler, "go ahead." Mr. Bell went at once to 
the Treasury, filed his resignation, and within an hour returned 
to the office of the Secretary of the Intei-ior, He found him in 
conference with two Senators, and this conversation followed : 
" Mr. Secretary, I have taken the oath and I am ready to go 
to work." " Yery well, do you know where to lind the Chief 
Clerk's room?" "No, sir." "Well, sir, it won't take long to 
look it up." Mr. Bell started on the search for it, and within a 
few moments had relieved the gentleman temporarily in charge, 
taken possession of its desk, and commenced business. Mr. 
Chandler, also on recommendation of Mr. Edmunds, promoted 
John Stiles from a minor place to the Appointment Clerkship. 
The Assistant Secretaryship of the Department he requested the 
President to tender to Charles T. Gorham of Michigan, who had 
lately relinquished the embassy of the T'liited States at The 
Hague. He believed that Mr. Gorham's business training, prac- 
tical ability and personal attachment to himself Mould greatly 
aid in the re -organization of the Department, and only felt 
doubtful as to M-liether that gentleman would accept the position. 
In the end, Mr. Gorham was induced to take it, and the Assist- 
ant Attorney- Generalship was given to Augustus S. Gaylord of 



IN THE CABINET. 343 

Saginaw, well-known to Mr. Chandler as a good lawyer and a 
vigilant and trustworthy man. These changes in his executive 
staff the new Secretary of the Interior regarded as an essential 
part of the work of investigation and purification which was to 
be accomplished.* 

Within less than one month after the commencement of Mr. 
Chandler's term, all the clerks in one of the important rooms 
in the Patent Office were summarily removed. Examination 
had supplied satisfactory proof of dishonesty in the transaction 
of the business under their care, and the Secretary concluded 
that all of them were either sharers in the corruption or lacked 
the vigilance necessary for their positions, and he declared 
every desk vacant. To the Hon. Jay A. Hubbell, whom he 
met on the evening of the day upon which he had taken this 
vigorous step, he said, "I have been 'reforming' to-day. I 
"have emptied one large room and have left it in charge of a 
" colored porter, who has the key, who cannot read and write, 
" and who is instructed to let no one enter it without my orders. 
" I think the public interests are safe so far as that room is 
" concerned until I can find some better men to put into it." 
To the remonstrances which followed this action he was reso- 
lutely deaf, and to some influential friends of one of the men 
thus displaced he said significantly, " That man is competent 
" enough ; if he thinks that the cause of his removal should be 
" made public, he can be accommodated ; I don 't advise him to 
" press it." Later in Mr. Chandler's term, and without warning, 

+ Much of Secretary Chandler's confidence arises from the well -known integrity and 
personal reliability of the several gentlemen sustaining the nearest official relation to him, 
all of whom were selected by his own free choice, and from his own personal knowledge 
of these essential Characteristics. General Gorham did not seek the office of Assistant 
Secretary ; fhe office sought him, and Mr. Chandler himself would take no denial. So, 
also, of Mr. Gaylord, his able and untiring Assistant Attorney - General for the department. 
And the same is true of Mr. Partridge, his discreet and trusted private secretary. Sur- 
rounded by such aids he well knows that no material interest can suffer by any temporary 
contingency, such as the one which now occurs.— -Washington dispatch to the Philadelphia 
"City Item" oj Oct. ?0, 1875 (referring to Mr. Charidler's temporary absence). 



34:4 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

tlie inoiiLlily pay-rolls of the Patent Office employes were 
placed in the custody of a new officer, and the full name and 
city address of every one who signed them was taken. The 
result was that for upward of a score of names no owners 
appeared, and it was thus found that money had been dishonestly 
drawn in the past by some one through the device of fictitious 
clerkships. It was also ascertained that in a few cases work, 
requiring expert skill had been given to unqualified persons who 
had "farmed it out" to others at reduced rates, and were thus 
receiving pay without rendering service. These disclosures led to 
further prompt removals of those implicated in the frauds, and 
to the eradication of the abuses thus exposed. In this bureau 
some change of methods was also made which simplified the 
transaction of business, and increased the facilities for procuring 
patents while lessening their cost to the public. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Mr. Chandler found to be 
more utterly unsavory in reputation than any other division 
of his Department. Besides securing a new Commissioner and 
Chief Clerk, he instituted a series of quiet inquiries into the 
methods of doing b.usiness there, and soon determined upon 
removing a number of subordinates, whose records were unsatis- 
factory and whose surroundings were suspicious. He then sent 
for the Commissioner and notified him of this decision, but that 
officer replied that they were the most valuable men he had, 
and that it would be almost impossible to conduct the business 
of the bureau without them. The urgency of his protest finally 
induced Mr. Chandler to delay action for a few days. While 
matters were in this state of suspense, President Grant, who 
was watching with keen interest the examination into the Inte- 
rior Department offices, said to its Secretary, "Mr. Chandler, 
" have you removed those clerks in the Indian Bureau Avhom we 
"were talking about?" Mr. Chandler replied, "Xo, sir; the Com- 
" missioner said it would be almost impossible to run the office 



IN THE CABINET. 345 

" without them." The President answered, " Well, Mr. Secretary, 
you can shut ii p the bureau, can't you ? " The answer was, 
" Yes, sir." " Well then," said General Grant, " have those men 
" dismissed before three o'clock this afternoon, or shut up the 
" bureau." Mr. Chandler went over to the Department, sent for 
the Commissioner, told him that the suspected clerks must go 
that afternoon if the bureau was closed as the result, and gave 
the necessary orders of removal which were promptly executed. 
In regard to the dismissal of these men, he said, "I haven't 
"evidence that would be regarded in a court as sufficient to 
"convict them of fraud or dishonesty, but to my mind the 
" proof of their crookedness is strong as Holy Writ." This was 
only one of many instances in wliich President Grant actively 
interested himself in the work of hunting out fraud, and there 
was no step which Mr. Chandler took in the direction of honest 
and cheaper administration in which he was not cordially and 
powerfully sustained at the White House. 

The " Indian Attorneys " also came under and felt the 
weight of the new Secretary's just displeasure. One of the 
glaring impositions practiced upon the ignorant aborigines M^as 
that of inducmg them, winter after winter, to send " agents " to 
Washington to look after their interests, upon representations 
made to them that the government would otherwise deprive 
them of some of their rights. Many of these men were paid 
eight dollars a day and their expenses, while others contracted 
for certain sums secured on the property of the Indians. In 
fact, these " attorneys " rendered no needed service and preyed 
upon the ignorance of their clients. These men Mr. Chandler 
banished from his Department; he also declined to allow the 
payment of claims preferred by representatives of the Indians 
for " expenses incurred in procuring legislation," on the ground 
that such outlay was illegal and immoral. His decision on these 
points was embodied in this order (addressed on Dec. 6, 1875, 



346 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

to tlio Coininissioner of Indian Affairs, and still governing the 
proceedings of that bureau), which saved large sums of money 
to the Indians : 

IleiTiifter no payment shall be made and no claim shall be approved for 
services rendered for or in behalf of any tribe or band of Indians in the pro- 
curement of legislation from Congress or from any State Legislature, or for 
the transaction of any other business for or in behalf of such Indians before 
this Department or any bureau thereof, or before any other Department of the 
government, and no contract for the performance of such services will here- 
after be recognized or approved by the Indian Office or the Department. 
Should legal advice or assistance be needed in the prosecution or defense of 
any suit involving the rights of any Indian or Indians, before any court or 
other tribunal, it can be procured through the Department of Justice. 

This regulation will govern the Indian Office, and application for com- 
pensation for such services must not be forwarded to the Department for 
action hereafter, it being understood that the regularly - appointed Indian 
Agent, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior 
are competent to protect and defend the rights of Indians in all respects, 
without the intervention of other p:irties, and without other compensation than 
the usual salaries of their respective offices. 

Mr. Chandler^s experience as Secretary of the Interior made 
him a firm believer in President Grant's policy of seeking to 
civilize the American savages by dealing with them through the 
agency of the Christian churches. Originally he favored turning 
the management of Indian affairs over to the military arm of 
the government, but actual contact with this knotty i^roblem 
convinced him that the so-called ''peace policy" was, with all 
its conceded imperfections, the true one. He held that, if firmly 
adhered to and improved as experience should dictate, it would 
ultimately yield the largest and best returns. To make any 
policy successful he knew that honest and competent service was 
indispensable, and that lie spared no efforts to secure. 

In the Pension Bnreau there was also some wholesome inves- 
tigation, and the efficiency of its administration and the vigilance 
of its scrutiny into fraiululent claims upon the government were 
materially increased, with the result of saving to the Treasury 



348 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER 

hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. In the Land Office 
a series of extensive frauds in what was known as '' Chij pewa 
half-breed scrij)'' were discovered during tlie first six montlisof 
Mr. Chandler's term. The matter was one that had been brought 
to the attention of the Department under other Secretaries, but 
no detection of rascality had followed. Mr. Chandler ordered a 
thorough investigation, which was pushed vigorously by Mr. 
(rorliam and Mr. Gaylord. The end was the breaking up of a 
strong and corrupt combination, the prompt removal of all 
officers connected with its past operations, and the reporting of 
the facts to the proper Congressional committees for further 
action. The Secretary also ordered a consolidation of the seven 
stationery divisions of the Department into one central office, 
securing thereby a lessened cost of management which was and 
is worth ^20,000 annually to the Treasury. 

The result of this exhibition of executive vigor need not be 
described in detail. Under the impetus of shrewd insight, dis- 
ciplined business habits, and firm purpose, the morale of the 
various bureaux improved rapidly. Abuses withered up, inef- 
ficiency became industry, and fraud took flight.* The Interior 
Department became a strongly - officered and well -administered 
branch of the government. Men saw that it had at last a head 
who meant that his subordinates should be honest and should 
render efficient service, and who could push his intentions into 
acts. Mr, Chandler, who had originally doubted as to whether 

* No appointment was ever more thoroughly justified by the result than Mr. Chand- 
ler's. It gave him a new field for his energy and his masterly executive ability, and it is 
conceded that he made the best Secretary of the Interior that the nation has had in our 
day. He made no boasts of wliat he intended to accomplish, but instituted reforms and 
uprooted abuses. He hated dishonest men, and they feared him.— Geu. J. R. Haivley, in the 
"Hartford Coiirant.'" 

On no occasion was Mr. Chandler known to use his official po.sition for his own 
pecuniary gain— directly or indirectly. His death has ended a long career of public ser- 
vice in executive and legislative capacities, and throughout his hands were ever clean of 
unjust or illegitimate gain — nor did his bitterest political foe ( and no man evoked stronger 
personal criticism ) ever charge, or ever suspect him, with making personal profit out of 
his political station and opportunities.— T. F. Baynrd in the Senate, Jan. HH, ISsO. 



IN THE CABINET. 349 

he could still command liis old mercantile faculty of mastering 
and managing a host of details, convinced both himself and 
others that this was still one of his powers. His administration 
made evident the benefits of the supervision of the public busi- 
ness by a practical man of affairs, and no member of President 
Grant's Cabinets made a record more enviable for unostentatious 
and efficient discharge of duty. 

The anecdotes of Mr. Chandler's Cabinet service are many 
and entertaining. He commenced by arming himself for the 
chronic battle of all heads of departments with the claimants of 
patronage. One of his first orders prohibited clerks from recom- 
mending applicants for position, and another provided him Avith 
a statement of the number of employes in the Department from 
each Congressional district. A memorandum book, containing 
this information, was constantly by his side, and was used almost 
daily. A Congressman would apply for the appointment to a 
clerkship of some constituent whom he was anxious to oblige or 
assist. The record would be produced, and something like this 
conversation would follow : " You see your quota is full, but 
" that do n't matter ; pick out any man you want me to remove 
" and I '11 put your man in his place at once." " But," the Con- 
gressman would reply, " I can 't do that. If I ask you to turn 
out any of these men I shall get myself into hot water." " You 
" do n't mean to say that you 're asking me to get myself into 
" hot water for you ? " the Secretary would answer, and with this 
weapon, thus used half banteringly but still effectively, he, with 
perfect good -nature, turned aside the Congressional pressure for 
positions. 

He also carefully kept memoranda of the official records of 
his subordinates, and charges against any one of them coming 
fi jia responsible sources were certain to be thoroughly investi- 
gated. But no man could be more wrathful at mere back- 
biting or at efforts for the secret undermining of reputation. 



350 ZACHAKIAII ClIANDLKR. 

Ills repugnance to injustice was no less keen than his sense of 
justice. One afternoon a man of clerical aspect and garb called 
at his office, and said, after introducing himself, " Mr. Chandler, 
" I presume it is your intention to have none but correct people 
•' in your Department." 

" Tiiat is my intention," 

"Well, do you know, sir, that you have a woman in one of 
the bureaux of your Du[)artment who is of bad character." 

*' No, sir, I do not know that I have any such persons in my 
Department." 

"I thought you didn't know it, Mr. Chandler, and eo I 
decided to come and inform you." 

The name of the clerk in (jUf-stion was then given and the 
charges against her made still more explicit. Mr. Chandler 
listened quietly, and finally picked up a jx-n and handed it to 
his caller, saying, " Just put that down in wri'^ing, sir, and I 
will dismiss the woman." The accuser hesitated and said, " Now, 
" I hope, Mr. Chandler, you will not connect my name with this 
" matter. I do n't want to be known." The Secretary thereupon 
leaned back in his chair and said, ''You know all about this 
" woinan and I know notliing about her, except what you state 
" to me ; but you want mu to ])ut a stain on her reputation 
" upon charges you are unwilling to even substantiate with your 
" name. Never ! Leave the office." Upon the abrupt departure 
of the visitor so dismissed, Mr. Chandler turned to one of his 
clerks and said, '' He belongs to that class of infoi-mers wlio are 
" always willing to stand behind and ruin a person, but mIio 
"don't want to be known. I don't propose to be a jiarty to any 
" such transaction." 

A contractor, whose rascality had been conclusively exposed 
and whose contract had been unceremoniously annulled, came to 
him one day to remonstrate. Tlie conversation ran in this wise . 
''Mr. Secretarv, I have been badly used " 



IN THE CABINET. 351 

" I 'm glad of it," interrupted Mr. Chandler ; " you 're a 
scoundrel, and it's time you were getting your deserts." 

The man attempted explanation, but Mr. Chandler was too 
nnpatient to listen, and finally sent him away witli orders to 
write a letter setting forth his grievances, which should be 
investigated. " Although," added he, as the contractor retired, 
" it 's my opinion that the worst treatment yon could get would 
" be too good for you." 

In the few cases where genuine hardship followed his quick 
decisions and their enforcement, he was ready to make good the 
injury he had not intended to inflict. One morning a prominent 
officer of the army entered Mr. Chandler's office with a small 
pamphlet in his hand and said, " What kind of a fool is it, Mr. 
Secretary, that you have at your door distributing tracts ? " 
Upon Mr. Chandler's denying all knowledge of this variety of 
colportage, he said, " Here is a tract a fellow out there gave me, 
and told me to read it, and said it might be good for my soul." 
Mr. Chandler was nettled at this violation of discipline, and 
made inquiries which showed that one of the clerks was dis- 
tributing tracts about the Department under circumstances that 
implied neglect of his official duties, and thereupon he was dis- 
missed. In a short time an earnest letter came to the Secretary 
from the wife of the disj)laced man describing the distress that 
had been brought upon their home, whereupon Mr. Chandler 
directed his reinstatement, saying, as he issued the order, " I 
" guess he won't circulate any more tracts. I do n't object to 
" their distribution, but when a man is doing the government 
" business he should give that his attention." For a clerk dis- 
charged because of dishonesty, no amount of personal solicitation, 
even by close friends of Mr. Chandler, availed anything. At 
one time when he was most vehemently and persistently urged 
to restore a suspected and dismissed subordinate, he finally said 
lo the Senator who was pressing the matter, " There is but one 



332 ZACHAKIAU CHANDLER. 

" way by wliich you can have that man re - appointed, and that 
" is to fii'st have me turned out." 

In the early part of liis term a letter came to Mr. Chandler 
from a man in California, who had a case pending before the 
Department upon an appeal from the Commissioner of the Land 
Office. He wrote that if the Secretary would decide that case 
in favor of the appellant, he would remit $300 in gold. Mr. 
Chandler read it and said to his clerk, "Call the attention of 
" the Attorney - General to that, cite the law that man has 
" violated, and ask the Department of Justice to pFOsecute the 
"fellow," and this course was taken. At about the same time, 
a dispatch came from the Pacific coast stating that a man was 
at San Francisco who claimed to be Mr, Chandler's brother, and 
was seeking to borrow money on that statement. To this Mr. 
Chandler's answer was this telegram : " I have no brotlier. 
Arrest the scoundrel." 

By the clerks, whose official record satisfied liim, lie was 
universally liked. He was easily approached, ready to listen, 
quick to perceive, and prompt in decision. He scarcely ever gave 
reasons, but his rapid judgment was rarely found to require 
reversal or even revision. With those who did business with 
the Department on honest principles, and only asked for 
promptitude and efficiency in its service, his popularity was great 
and deserved. The fact that he was at its head was kept con- 
stantly fresh in the minds of all. Soon after the commencement 
of his term he exchanged offices with the Commissioner of 
Patents, thus obtaining an apartment much more desirable than 
the one previously occupied by the Secretaries. One of the 
Patent Office attaches, in replying to the comment of somebody 
who expressed surprise at the fact that this change had not been 
sooner made, said, " To tell the truth we have generally regarded 
" tlie Secretary himself as an interloper in the Department. ^Ir. 
'• Chandler has started a new order of things." 



m THE CABINET. 



353 



While the investigating mania was at its height, the House 
Committee on the Expenditures of the Interior Department 
determined to look into his books and business system. He 




THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR S OFFICE. 



accordingly received from them a formal letter asking what time 
would be convenient for the investigation. The Chief Clerk 
submitted this communication to Mr. Chandler, who said, " Tell 
" them to come down any day, and I want you to put the best 



23 



354 ZACHARIAH CHANDLEIi. 

" room we have at their disposal, and give them all the facilities 
" you can to investigate the affairs of any bureau of tlie Depart- 
'' ment that they want to look into. If they can find anytliing 
"wrong that I haven't found, I shall be very much obliged to 
"them. They will be pumping a dry well. Tlie work is done." 
The committee came, but only held a few brief sessions, and 
finally never concluded their labors and never made a report in 
relation thereto. 

Active as were Mr. Chandler's party sympathies, and little 
disposed as he was to consult his political opponents as to his 
course, or to admit them to any share in the patronage at his 
disposal, he did not manage the Department upon merely par- 
tisan principles. He did not make removals of Democratic 
subordinates except for cause; he never appointed any Republi- 
can whom he did not believe to be thoroughly upright and 
competent. That to fill any vacancy he always sought to find 
the right kind of Republican was true. His civil service theories 
stopped with honesty and efficiency, and did not exclude pro- 
nounced political sympathy with the appointing power nor party 
activity. Still, he did not on any occasion enforce the payment 
of political assessments by his subordinates, and their work for the 
Republican cause was left voluntary in character. The nearest 
approach to mere partisanship in his use of the appointing power 
was the giving of places in the Department to crippled soldiers 
who had been discharged from the employment of the House of 
Representatives by the Democratic Door-keeper, and even in 
that it was far more the indignation of the patriot than of the 
Republican that stirred him. At the close of Mr. Chandlers 
Secretaryship, the clerks of the Department waited upon him 
in a body, and thanked him for the kindness they had received 
at his hands. While fai'ewells were being exchanged Mr. Schurz, 
the new Secretary, came in and was introduced to his staff of 
subordinates. Mr. Chandler then said : 



IN THE CABINET. 355 

Mr. Secretary, I welcome you to this office. When I came here this 
Department was greatly tainted with corruption, especially in the Patent Office 
and the Indian Bureau. With the aid of the gentlemen you see around you, 
I have been able to cleanse it, and I believe, as far as I am able to ascertain, 
that no abuses exist in the bureaux I have named. I had to use the knife 
freely, and I believe this Department stands to-day the peer of any depart- 
ment of the government. 

Mr. Chandler further commended the corps of employes as 
honest, faithful men, and Mr. Schurz replied: 

I think I am expressing the general opinion of the country when I say 
you have succeeded in placing the Interior Department in far better condition 
than it had been in for years, and that the public is indebted to you for the 
very energetic and successful work you have performed. I enter upon the 
arduous duties with which I have been entrusted with an earnest desire to 
discharge them conscientiously, and I shall be happy when leaving the Depart- 
ment to have achieved as good a reputation for practical efficiency as you 
have won. I thank you, sir, for this cordial welcome, and I will say to the 
gentlemen to whom you have introduced me that they shall have my protec- 
tion ; and I ask from them the same faithful assistance they have given you. 

The tribute which Secretary Schurz at the outset thus paid 
to the practical efficiency of his predecessor merely expressed the 
public verdict which greeted the close of Mr. Chandler's term. 
Examination did not compel any modifying of this praise, and 
after Mr. Chandler's death his successor in the Interior Depart- 
ment — a man very exacting in judgment and one with whom 
his political differences had been numerous — again said : " In 
"the course of the last two years I have frequently discovered 
"in the transaction of public business traces of his good judg- 
" ment and his energetic determination to do what was right." 




CHAPTER XX. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876 AT HOME THE MARSH FARM 

NEAR LANSING. 

ilE Michigan delegation to tlie Cincinnati Convention 
of 1876 selected Mr. Chandler as the menil^er of the 
Xational Republican Committee for their State, and at 
he first formal meeting of that body (at Philadelphia, 
early in July) he was chosen its chairman after a close triangu- 
lar contest between his friends and those of the Hon. A. B. 
Cornell and (leu. E. F. ISToyes. The committee at once opened 
rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Kew York, with its Secre- 
tary, the Hon. R. C. McCormick of Arizona, in immediate 
charge. Mr. Chandler made frequent visits to the headquarters 
throughout the campaign, superintending the general plan of 
operations and meeting with the executive committee ; as election- 
day approached his attendance became more constant. 

Originally he felt confident of Republican victory, not 
believing that in the centennial year the American people would 
render a political verdict whose result would be the restoration 
of the disloyal classes of the South to national supremacy. 
But, in September, evidences of Republican apathy in the impor- 
tant States of Ohio and Indiana — more especially in the former, 
which was the home of the Presidential candidate — greatly dis- 
turbed him, and made it plain that the situation was critical. 
It had become evident that organized brutality would give all 
the close Southern States to the Democrats and even make 
doubtful those which were strongly Republican, and that the 
merchantable and criminal classes of New York city would be 



HOME INTERESTS. 357 

SO used as to also cast the electoral vote of that great State for 
the Opposition. The gravity of the .prospect then brought out 
Mr. Chandler's best qualities of party leadership. Prompt aid 
was rendered in Ohio, and the National Committee did more than 
its full share ( Mr. Chandler making large personal advances ) to 
carry that State in the important October election. After the 
serious loss of Indiana, measures were at once instituted to 
organize the party for decisive work on the Pacific Slope, to see 
that in those Southern States where there was any hope all law- 
ful measures were taken to defeat the plans of "the rifle clubs" 
and " the white leagues," and to carry New York if that was 
possible. Nothing was spared that would arouse the spirit of 
the party, and Mr. Chandler saw that the means were forth- 
coming for every effort that promised to make success more 
certain. 

The elections showed that the calculations of the managers 
of the Kepublican campaign were accurate, and were also ade- 
quate to "snatching victory from the jaws of defeat." The 
effort to save New York failed, and it and the neighboring 
States rewarded with their electoral votes the unscrupulous and 
subtle skill of Governor Tilden's personal canvass. But the 
Republican victories beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the reso- 
lute resistance offered in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, 
to the seizure of those States by political crimes ranging from 
shameless fraud to wholesale massacre, still left success with 
the Rejiublicans after a contest witliout an American parallel 
in obstinacy, bitterness and excitement. Mr. Chandler showed 
throughout the jirolonged electoral dispute " the courage which 
mounteth with the occasion," and his firmness, vigor and activity 
were among the important factors in the work of saving the 
fruits of the so narrowly - won victory. As soon as the smoke 
lifted from the battle - field his dispatch appeared, " Hayes has 
185 votes and is elected," and he maintained that position to 



358 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

the end without a shade of faltering. Knowing that the Republi- 
cans were rightfully entitled to the electoral votes of, at least, 
Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, he 
determined that in the three States where the existence of 
Republican officials afforded some ground for hope nothing 
should be left undone to deprive fraud and violence of their 
prey, and he pushed every measure which seemed needed to 
uphold the Ropuljlicans of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina 
in their lawful rights. In some of the important closing phases 
of this exciting contest his counsels Avere not followed. The 
p]lectoral Commission act was not a measure that he approved. 
Firmly believing in the constitutional power of the President of 
the Senate to count the electoral votes and announce the result, 
he held the position that that officer should discharge that duty, 
and that the candidate thus constitutionally declared elected 
should be duly inaugurated at all hazards ; and revolutionary 
threats were without effect upon his firm purpose. The negotia- 
tions between the opposing party leaders which attended the 
closing hours of the struggle, and which culminated in the 
abandonment by the new administration of the Republican State 
governments of the South, received no sanction from him. He 
regarded such a policy as essentially perfidious, and as clouding 
the title of Mr. Hayes to his high office, a title which Mr. 
Chandler believed to be as clear as that possessed by any Presi- 
dent chosen since the formation of the constitution. Much else 
that attended the surrender of the South to the bitter enemies 
of the republic he deprecated as exceedingly harmful to the 
party of his faith, as unwise in tendency, and as unjust in prin- 
ciple. He Avas not demonstrative in his criticisms upon the new 
" policy," and his retirement to private life enabled him to 
maintain a general silence upon the subject. But his disapproval 
of a " conciliation," which he regarded as cowardly in its treat- 
ment of friends and as foolish in its manifestation of undeserved 



HOME INTERESTS. 359 

confidence in enemies, was profound.* Within two years the 
vindication of his opinions was complete. 

The indebtedness of the Repubhcans to Mr. Chandler's atti- 
tude and efforts in the presidential election of 1876 and the 
subsequent electoral dispute can scarcely be exaggerated. With- 
out his firmness, the spirit with which he held his party up to 
the thorough assertion of its rights, the liberality with which he 
advanced the large sums required for legitimate expenditures, 
and the influence of his indomitable resolution, the final victory 
would have been at least vastly more difficult of attainment, if 
not actually impossible. In him the enemy never found the 
slightest traces of failing will or flagging strength. While the 
excitement was at its height, a Democratic periodical published 
a cartoon, in which Mr. Chandler was caricatured as standing 
colossus -like over a yawning chasm, holding up an elephant, 
labeled '"The Kepublican Vote," by a double-handed grasp upon 
its tail. The humor of the rough sketch greatly delighted its 
subject, and he kept it with him for the entertainment of his 
friends. He first saw it after one of the Cabinet sessions, when 
it was produced by President Grant and passed through the 
hands of the other Secretaries, until it reached Mr. Chandler, 
who, after looking it over, said, gravely pointing out his position 
in the cartoon: "Mr. President, one of three things is certain: 
" either the rocks upon which my feet are resting will crumble, or 
" the elephant's tail will break, or I shall land the animal." Into 

* In the fall of 1877 Mr. Chandler delivered the annual address before the Branch 
County Agricultural Society, and while in Coldwater was the guest of the Hon. Henry C. 
Lewis of that city, who invited a few friends to meet him socially. In the course of the 
conversation Mr. Chandler said that he was going to his Lansing farm to spend a few days. 
His reticence in regard to the Hayes administration was then a matter of remark, and the 
Hon. C. D. Randall said to him : "Well, Mr. Chandler, when you get out in the center of 
" your great farm and alone, you will have a fine opportunity to express your opinion 
"about the Hayes 'policy.'" Mr. Chandler's reply was: "No, sir; that Lansing farm 
" will never answer my purpose. To do that I shall have to be on the top of a high hill 
"behind the meeting-house and with the wind blowing the other way ! " The audience 
responded with a hearty laugh. 



3(50 ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. 

the metliods of liis work lie never feiired exaniiiiatiun. No 
cipher dispatch disclosures have cast infamy upon his name, and 
eager investigation by his political enemies still left his personal 
lionor untainted. 

After the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term of Cabinet ser- 
vice, he remained in Washington for several weeks, and then 
accompanied General Grant to Philadelphia, and was one of the 
party who escorted the Ex -President down the Delaware when, 
on May 17, 1877, he commenced his tour around the world. 
The next two years were spent by Mr. Chandler in Michigan. 
His only prolonged absence from his Detroit home during this 
period was caused by a two months" ti'ip to the California coast 
in June and July of 1877. A. special car was placed at his ser- 
vice by the Pacific Railroads (he was one of the earliest and 
most energetic eupporters of the trans - continental railway pro- 
ject), and he was accompanied by Charles T. Gorham of Mar- 
shall, H. C. Lewis of Coldwater, and S. S. Cobb of Kalamazoo. 
Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the 
Yo Semite Valley were visited during the journey, and every- 
where Mr. Chandler was welcomed with noteworthy public 
and private entertainments ; his attractive social qualities shone 
throughout the jaunt. Not a great traveler, yet he saw dur- 
ing his life much of the world. In 1875, in company with Sen- 
ators Cameron, Anthony and others, he visited the leading 
cities of the South. During one of the Congressional recesses 
of his second term, he passed some months in Europe, and 
while still in active business he spent a winter in the West 
Lidies. Ilis knowledge of the resources and points of interest 
of the North and Northwest w\as extensive and thorough. 

The marsh farm, which Mr. Chandler bought near the city 
of Lansing, and the experiments in extensive and systematic 
drainage which he made thereon, always received a generous 
share of his attention when he was in Michigan. This enter- 



HOME INTERESTS. 



361 



prise was one in which he unhesitatingly made large investments 
with the view of settling definitely questions of manifest public 
importance. In 1857 the State of Michigan gave to its Agricul- 
tural College the public lands in the four townships of Bath, 
De Witt, Meridian, and Lansing, which were designated on the 
surveyor's maps as "swamp lands;" in the main the sections 
covered by the grant w^ere marshy, although their rectilinear 




PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM. 



boundaries included some solid ground. Mr. Chandler purchased 
from the college and other owners a farm of 3,160 acres, located 
four miles (by railroad) from Lansing, in the towns of Bath 
and De Witt in Clinton county; it included about 1,900 acres 



*The heavy black lines in this map are the boundaries of the farm ; the wavmg lines 
indicate the border of the uplands surrounding the mai^h. The drainage is from Mud 
Lake via 'the big ditch" to the Looking-glass river. The lateral ditching (of which 
there are over fifty miles) is shown on the plat by the fine Imes. 



362 ZACriARIAH CHANDLER. 

of marsh meadow, 500 acres of tamarack swamp, and 800 acres 
of oak -opening uplands. Tlie marsh was traversed by a slender 
water-course, deviously connecting some small lakes with a stream 
known as the Looking-glass river. The upland portion of the 
farm was thoroughly fertile, but its development and cultivation 
did not specially interest Mr. Chandler, excejit as furnishing 
the needed base for his experiments upon the marsh. He said : 
" Michigan contains thousands of acres of precisely this kind of 
" land. The drainage of this jjarticular marsh is difficult, as much 
" so as is the case with any land in this peninsula which is not 
" a hopeless swamp. If this tract can be reclaimed, others can 
" be, and I propose to give the experiment of reclamation a 
" thorough trial. I have the money, and I believe I have the 
" pluck. If I succeed, it will be a good thing for the State, for 
" it will show how to add millions of dollars worth of land 
" to its farms. If I fail, it will also be a good thing, for it will 
" settle an open question, and no man need repeat my attempt." 
He pushed this experiment vigorously from the time of its 
commencement until his death, and gave to it his frequent per- 
sonal supervision. His investments in the marsh farm soon 
came to be counted by many tens of thousands of dollars. 
Originally, practical farmers were inclined to regard his opera- 
tions as sheer folly, but as they saw the purpose, methods and 
thoroughness of liis work, a just appreciation of its aim fol- 
lowed. Mr. Cliandler never disguised the character of this enter- 
prise. Repeatedly he said to visitors at the farm and to friends, 
" I have a theory — that is a remarkably expensive thing to 
''have — and I propose to test it here; it will make me poorer, 
"■ but it may make others richer some time." The public value 
of his experiment he believed to be great, and that fact he was 
quick to make prominent whenever it seemed necessary. 

The general plan of drainage operations consisted in connect- 
ing by a large ditch Park lake (which has an area of 235 acres) 



HOME INTERESTS. 



363 



■with the Looking-glass river. This main ditch was constructed 
by straightening the bed of Prairie creek, and possessed descent 
enough to ensure a slow current in wet seasons. It is about 
four miles in length, and averages fourteen feet in width by 
four in depth. At intervals of forty rods are constructed 
lateral ditches, as a rule five feet in width at the toj) by three 
in depth. Tliis part of the work had not been completed at 
the time of Mr. Chandler's death, but still the lateral ditching 




THE '' BIG DITCH " ( WINTER SCENE ). 



had reached about fifty miles in aggregate length, and had well 
drained about 1,000 acres in the western end of the marsh near 
the outlet into the Looking-glass. In that portion of the farm 
the first results of the drainage — the rotting down of the peaty 
surface of the marsh into a vegetable mold — have already 
manifested themselves satisfactorily. The extent to whicli this 
decomposition will continue is not completely tested, nor does 
it yet appear what will be the full measure of the arability of 



304 ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 

soil, wliicli will be created by this process, supplemented by the 
tile draining which will follow the subsidence of the marsh to a 
permanent level. This peaty surface varies froni two and a half 
feet to a rod in depth and promises to become an enormously 
j)roductive soil. The experiments thus far tried upon it have 
resulted hopefully. Much of the native grass furnished excellent 
hay, and stock fatted upon it thoroughly with no more than the 
usual allowance of grain. The tame grass sown was chiefly Fowl 
Meadow and Timothy. The former Mr. Chandler had seen grow- 
ing in Holland on reclaimed land, and he determined to give it 
a trial ; he was only able to find the seed in the Boston market, 
and there paid for it four dollars per bushel of eleven pounds. 
[t is a species of Red Top, and soon yielded from one and a 
half to two tons of excellent hay per acre. For four seasons 
this seeding -down with tame grasses w\as tried with satisfactory 
results, and then other experiments followed. In the fall of 
1878, twelve acres of marsh, then well seeded -down with grass, 
were thoroughly plowed by Superintendent Hughes, who, in the 
following season, raised thereon corn, potatoes, rutabagas and 
oats. The results conclusively showed tnat the marsh possessed 
general productiveness, although the experiment itself was marred 
by the unseasonable frosts of 1879. The corn looked well at 
the outset, but was severely injured in the end. The potato 
crop was a good one, and the yield of oats was also large. In 
the fall of 1870 another tract of twelve acres was plowed, and 
the same experiment was put in process of repetition. Super- 
intendent Hughes is of the opinion that within another year, 
the reclaimed marsh will produce lUO bushels of corn to the 
acre. A short tune before his death, Mr. Chandler said that, 
in view of the success which had attended the experiments 
already tried, he now felt confident that in time his farm would 
be pointed out as an ague -bed transformed into one of the most 
valuable pieces of property in Central Michigan, and woald 



HOME INTERESTS. 365 

demonstrate the reclaimabilitj of large tracts of swamp land in 
that State. About 500 acres of the marsh are seeded with Fowl 
Meadow grass ; about 300 acres of this is mowed, and the remain- 
der is used for pasturage. Over 400 tons of excellent hay were 
cut there in the season of 1879. 




THE SUPERINTENDENT S HOUSE AT THE MARSH FARM. 

Outside of the interest attaching to it by reason of the 
drainage experiments, the Chandler farm would deserve notice 
as one of the most thoroughly equipped and stocked of the new 
farms of Michigan. It is traversed by a state road, and by 
the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad (which has estab- 
lished a signal station near the farm-house). Its buildings are 



366 ZACHAKI.VII CHANDLER. 

located upon the highest ground. They are substantially con- 
structed, and surrounded with all the evidences of thrift. The 
main house of the farm, which is occupied by the superintendent 
and his family, is a commodious frame structure, two stories in 
height, and conveniently partitioned off into spacious and any 
apartments. ISTear it is the house -barn (32 by 54 feet in dimen- 
sions) with sheep -sheds adjoining. About a half-mile to the 
east are two tenant houses, occupied by families employed on the 
farm. On the east side of the state road, at a distance of half 
a mile, is a large barn, erected in 1879 ; its main portion is 41 
by 06 feet in dimensions, witli a wing 38 by 90 feet ; its height 
is 44 feet to the ridge ; attached are sheds 250 feet in length 
and "L" shaped. This barn is largely used for storage purposes, 
and will receive 250 tons of hay. The basement of its wing is 
divided into 60 cattle stalls, 30 on each side, with a broad pas- 
sage through the center. The stalls are ingeniously arranged in 
the most improved style, and with a special regard for cleanli- 
ness. In the basement of the main barn is a large root cellar 
(capable of holding 2,000 bushels of potatoes, turnips, etc.), 
stabling accommodations for eight horses, two large box -stalls 
for stallions, a feed - room 20 by 25 feet in size, numerous calf- 
pens, and many other conveniences, Located above are two 
granaries, each 12 by 26 feet in dimensions. Attached to the 
barn, but in a separate building, is a 12 -horse -power engine, 
used for cutting feed, and for other farm purposes. A large 
automatic windmill and pump supply water in abundance. 

The farm is well stocked ; on it are seventeen horses, includ- 
ing "Mark Antony," an imported Normandy stallion, which is 
a fine specimen of the Percheron breed. There are also 120 
head of handsome graded cattle on the farm, 300 sheep graded 
from Shropshire Down bucks, and 23 pure- bred Essex swine. 
In wagons and implements of every kind the equipment is com- 
plete, and all are of the best manufacture and most improved 



HOME INTERESTS. 



367 



quality. The force of laborers on the farm as a rule includes 
five men in summer and three in winter, large gangs being 
employed during the two months of the haying season, and also 
when there is any extensive fencing or ditching enterprise to be 

pushed. 

Mr. Chandler's experiments were closely watched by the 
farmers of Michigan. Visits were frequent from them singly. 







TUE MAIN BABN OF TUE MAESH FARM. 

in small parties, and in club or grange excursions to the marsh, 
and they always met a hospitable reception. Letters of inquiry 
also came from many parts of the State, giving evidence of the 
widespread character of the interest felt. Mr. Chandler himself 
when in Michigan visited the farm at least once a month, 
inspecting the work thoroughly, discussing plans with the super- 



368 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

iutendeiit, making suggestions, and giving orders. His experience 
as a farmer in his boyhood furnislied ideas which were yet nse- 
ful and a judgment wliich was well-informed; still he was ready 
to welcome all innovations that promised good results, and he 
closed many discussions with his superintendents by remarking, 
" If you come at me with facts, that is enough ; I never argue 
against them." At the farm he also found the most congenial 
relaxation. He would come there jaded out with the excitement 
and labor of political contest and public life ; in stout clothing 
and heavy boots he would scour the meadows, examine ditching, 
look up the stock, oversee labor, and work himself if there was 
an inviting opportunity. A day or two of this life would biing 
rest, hearty appetite, and sound sleep, would relieve his nerves 
from tension, and restore his vital powers to their natural 
activity. He always rated his visits to the marsh farm as a cer- 
tain and delightful tonic. 

In private life Mr. Chandler kept up the habits wliich 
marked his public career. His voluminous correspondence was 
never neglected. Napoleon's method of leaving letters unopened 
for three weeks, because within that time most of them would 
need no replies, he reversed. As a rule, every communication 
addressed to Mr. Chandler was promptly answered ; to even 
mere notes of compliment brief responses were sent. Of course 
this practice made a confidential secretary indispensable, and that 
position was held for some years by a Mr. Miller ; after his 
death (in 1870) it was discreetly and faithfully filled by George 
"W". Partridge. Matters entrusted to Mr. Chandler's care by constit- 
uents always received early attention; the same statement is true 
of applications from the humblest stranger who preferred a claim 
upon his attention, and it includes political enemies as well as 
friends. Mr. Chandler regarded meeting these demands as part 
of his public duties; no other prominent man of his day gave 
to such matters a tithe of the time and energy devoted to them 



HOME INTERESTS. 



369 



by liim, and this was one source of his hold upon the popular 
affection. Of course much labor was involved, but this was 
offset by the fact that in all his duties he was regular, punctual 




MR. CUAjSTDLEr's RESIDENCE IN WASHINGTON. 



and systematic; his mercantile training helped him greatly in 
this respect, and it was said of him truly, "He has never been 
excelled as a 'business Senator' at Washington." While not a 
student, he was a man who prepared for every important action. 



370 ZACIIAHLUI CHANDLER. 

Ill liis speeches lie aimed at nervous strength and etrectiveness. 
For oratorical finish he cared nothing-, but siinj)le language, terse 
sentences, some plain word whose meaning was an argument in 
itself — these he sought for unceasingly. He apologized for the 
length of one of his brief speeches because he liad not had time 
to make it shorter. Not rarely he would put into a sentence of 
ten Saxon words the power of a philippic, i.nd this rough 
missile would crush where mere rhetoric would have only irri- 
tated. Mr. Chandler never failed as a speaker to command the 
popular attention, and his force and the simplicity of his diction 
were greatly ; "ded by the sincerity which illuminated them. 
The vigor and truth of conviction, which made him so ardent a 
champion of the party of his political faith, marked his speeches, 
and made his appeals potent with his hearers. " Ilis words 
were simple and his soul sincere." In fact, his sincerity and 
honesty were the salient qualities of the man. His was not a 
faultless character ; but it was above baseness, and it was free 
from affectation, from cant, and from hypocrisy. The record of 
his public life recalls Emerson's estimate of Bonaparte : " This 
" man showed us how much may be accomplished by the mere 
"force of such virtues as all men possess in less degree — 
" namely, by punctuality, by personal attention, by courage, and 
" by thoroughness." But more ]i()noral)le to his memory is the 
fact that concerning the man himself can bo justly quoted 
Carlyle's eloquent tribute to Burns: "He is an honest man. 
" . . In his successes and his failures, in his greatness and 
" his littleness, he is ever clear, simple and true, and glitters 
" with no lustre but his own. AVe reckon this to be a great 
"virtue — to bo, in fact, the root of most other virtues." 

Mr. Chandler's social nature was a, hearty one. His manners 
were easy, he was affable with all, and he was without the 
slightest tinge of aristocratic tastes or prejudice. No false dignity 
surrounded him ; with his friends his lauo-h was readv ; he liked 



372 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

a game of whist, enjoyed a good story, found pleasure in social 
gatherings, was entertaining in conversation, and easily gave 
way to the natural jollity of his spirits. Exact and stern as he 
often was, his intimates found him a most agreeable companion. 
Few men have ever bound friends to themselves more firmly. 

He surrounded his homes with the comforts that wealth 
could supply, and yet was not ostentatious. His Washington 
residence he purchased for about $40,000 in 1867 from Senor 
Bareda, the Peruvian Minister. It is located on H between 
Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and is a handsome house with 
spacious parlors and dining room upon the first floor ; commodi- 
ous apartments occupy the upper stories, which are connected by 
rich staircases of black walnut. Mr. Chandler's office was located 
in the basement, and has been the scene of many important con- 
sultations between famous men on questions of party policy and 
public concern. His Detroit home was the mansion on the 
Northwest corner of Fort and Second streets, which he built in 
1855 -'56. It is situated in spacious grounds, and is of the plam 
Roman style of architecture, which aims at the simple in out- 
line and massive in effect. A semi - circular drive and path 
lead to it through the gate -ways of a heavy and handsome 
fence and into a large porte cochere. Thence wide stone ste])s 
rise through solid mahogany doors to a broad hall, whose floor 
of inlaid woods is partly hidden by rich rugs. On the right 
is the drawing room, a spacious apartment furnished in blue and 
gold, and abounding in tasteful ornaments and handsome paint 
ings. In it stands Randolph Rogers's marble bust of Mr. 
Chandler, executed about 1870. Opposite and connected by 
folding doors are the library and dining room. The former's 
shelves are well filled with the best works of standard authors, 
including many ancient chronicles seldom found in private book 
collections. Back of the dining room and across a transverse 
hallwav is the ajiartment that was Mr. Chandler's ]-»rivate office; 



HOME INTERESTS. ,373 

its walls are literally covered with shelving containing Congres- 
sional annals and reports and many public docnments. The 
appointments of the nnmerons other rooms are tasteful and com- 
plete, and all the surroundings of the house are in keeping with 
its quiet elegance. In 1S58 Mr. Chandler met there with an 
accident of nearly fatal results. He followed his little daughter 
upon a search for some escaping gas, and was caught with her 
in a room in which a large mass of that inflammable vapor was 
exploded by a lighted candle. To add to the danger of the sit- 
uation the door was closed upon them by a frightened servant. 
Mr. Chandler seized his cliild and sheltered her from serious 
danger, and groped his way out blinded and scorched. It was 
then found that his hands and face were badly burned, and the 
loss of his eyesight was threatened. Careful treatment and his 
vigorous constitution ultimately brought about a full recovery, 
and the only traces left of the casualty were some slight affec- 
tions of the facial muscles and an unusual pallor of countenance. 
Mr. Chandler's domestic life was a thoroughlj- happy one. 
He married Letitia Grace Douglass of New York, a noble 
Christian woman, whose social accomplishments blended dignity 
with grace, and who met to the full her large share of the 
exacting duties attendant upon public life and high station. 
Their only child was a daughter, Mary Douglass Chandler, who 
was married, while her father was a Senator, to the Hon. Eugene 
Hale of Ellsworth, Maine. She inherited many of her father's 
traits, and his affection for her was rooted in the inner fibres of 
his strong nature. Her children, his three little grandsons, often 
knew him as a rollicking playfellow, and he counseled with her 
freely and often, and she shared in his confidence as well as his 
love. Throughout his life he expressed his appreciation of the 
devoted attachment of his wife and child by many acknowledg- 
ments that do not belong to a public chronicle; his will left his 
great estate to them as his sole heirs, "share and share alike." 




CHAPTER XXI. 

TTIK AfTCHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878 MR. CHANDLEr's RETURN TO THE 

SENATE "the JEF'F. DAVIS SPEECH." 

'HE township elections in Micliigan in April, 1878, 
revealed an astonishing growth in the number of the 
advocates of an irredeemable paper currency. " Hard 
times," Democratic disgust over the result of the elect- 
oral dispute, and Republican disappointment at " the Southern 
policy" of the new administration greatly relaxed existing party 
ties, and made the way ready for the expounders of the seduc- 
tive theory that prosperity depends upon a great volume of the 
currency, and that large issues of paper bearing the government 
stamp must greatly add to individual wealth. Throughout the 
West and South, Republican and Democratic leaders had fostered 
these fallacious ideas, and thus prepared the field of public sen- 
timent for this " Greenback " sowing. In Michigan the result 
was that the National party ( which in 1876 gave only 9,060 
votes to Peter Cooper for President) in April, 1878, cast over 
70,000 votes for its township candidates, elected a large number 
of supervisors in the most populous counties of the State, and 
showed greater strength than either of the old parties in four 
Congressional districts. This was the gravest situation the Repub- 
licans of Michigan had ever been called upon to face. A con- 
ference of their representative men was at once held, at the call 
of the State Central Committee, and the situation M-as thoroughly 
discussed. Among those participating was Gov. Charles M. 
Croswell, who said that he believed that the party should boldly 
declare for a sound currency, and resist with all its power the 



"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH." 375 

further spread of financial heresy ; for himself, he preferred 
defeat on that platform to a victory won by any surrender to 
false theories. The endorsement of his views was substantially 
unanimous, and an aggressive campaign was determined upon. 
The State Convention was promptly called, and met in Detroit on 
June 13. It was the ablest political gathering ever held in Mich- 
igan, and its delegates included the foremost men of the party 
from every co;uity. Mr. Chandler presided ; Governor Croswell 
was renominated at the head of a strong State ticket ; a plat- 
form, admirable for its soundness of doctrine and clearness of 
statement* (its author was Frederick Morley, formerly editor of 
the Detroit Post), was adopted; and Mr. Chandler was, amid the 
prolonged cheering of the convention, placed at the head of 
the State Committee. He had at that time about completed his 
plans for a European journey, and it was suggested to him by 
friends that his chairmanship of the N'ational Committee aiforded 
a valid excuse for declining this new appointment, which would 
make him responsible for the result of a doubtful fight, with the 
certainty that defeat would greatly impair his political prestige. 
To this advice Mr. Chandler simply replied, " If Michigan Kepub- 
licanism goes down, I will go with it." He promptly canceled 
all other engagements, appointed his confidential secretary, G. W. 
Partridge, secretary of the committee (with the consent of its 
members ), and threw his energy and vigor into that State cam 
paign. The contest that followed under his leadership preserved 
the spirit of the convention and upheld the doctrines of the 
platform. The financial question was discussed in every j)hase 
"upon the stump" and by the press. Mr. Chandler himself 



*The Michigan Republicans have done well. Their platform has about it the clear 
ring of honest conviction, undulled by any half -hearted and halting compromise. So lucid 
and courageous an enunciation of the financial creed of tiie Republican party has cer- 
tainly not been made this year, nor has the irreconcilable hostility of the party to all 
forms of tampering with public credit and national honor been so resolutely and judi 
ciously stated as by the Detroit Convention.— iVew York Times, June It,, ]k7S. 



376 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

S23okc ill all the leadin«;- cities of the State, and was seconded 
by many other orators, including James G. Blaine, James A. 
Garfield, and Stewart L. Woodford, whose addresses were mas- 
terly examples of the candid, luminous and popular treatment 
of a topic usually regarded as too abstruse and dry for profit- 
able public discussion. The courage and honesty of this fight 
were justly rewarded. The Republicans carried the State by 
over 47,000 plurality, and elected every Congressional candi- 
date and a Legislature with a large Kepublican majority upon 
joint ballot. The victory was a signal one.^ In no Western 
State had financial heresy ever been as resolutely grappled with 
and as thoroughly beaten, and his prominent share in this battle 
must rank among Mr. Chandler's most unselfish and honorable 
public services. 

An unforeseen but almost poetically just result of this 
triumph was his own return to Congress. Senator Christiancy's 
failing health compelled him in the winter of 1879 to seek 
(under physician's advice) rest and a change of climate. The 
President offered him the embassadorship at Berlin, or at Mex- 
ico, or at Lima, and he finally decided to accept the latter. His 
nomination was sent to the Senate on Jan. 29, 1879, and con- 
firmed without reference to a committee. On February li», his 
resignation as Senator was laid before the Michigan Legislature, 
and on the 18th that body filled the vacancy by election. With 
the earliest hints of the possibility of Senator Cliristiancy''s retire- 
ment, Republican opinion and the popular expectation had 
agreed that Mr. Chandler would be chosen for the remaining 
years of what the Republicans of Michigan had unsuccessfully 
sought to make his fourth term. This was regarded as due 
to him, as still more due to the party which had in 1875 been 
deprived of its choice, and as securing the restoration to public 
activity of a man of national influence and prominence, at an 
hour when the sagacity of his political judgment had been vin- 



"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH." 377 

dicated by tlie alarming attitude of the Sontli, and when the 
sturdiest quahties of leadership were needed in Washington. 
The legislative action reflected this strong current of public sen- 
timentr In the Kepublican caucus (held in the new Capitol of 
that State), Mr. Chandler was nominated for Senator on the 
first formal' ballot, receiving sixty -nine of the eighty -nine votes 
cast. In the Legislature he was elected by the vote of every 
Republican in his seat in either branch. 




THE MICHIGAN CAriTOL AT LANSING. 

On Feb. 22, 1879, Mr. Chandler's credentials were presented 
and read in the Senate, and he was escorted by Senator Ferry 
to the Yice- President's desk, where the official oath was adminis- 
tered to him by William A. Wheeler. He took the seat upon 
the outer row of the Republican side, which he had occupied in 
other Congresses. The circumstances of his return to public life 
attracted national attention, and his re - appearance in the Senate 



3T8 ZACIIAllIAII CHANDLER. 



was 



3 everywliere accepted as siguiticaiit of the growtli of Kepubli- 
cau courage and resolution. Sut what followed outstripped all 
expectation and was dramatic in its accessories. IJ-pon February 
28, he first addressed the Forty -fifth Senate, speaking briefly 
upon a bill providing for pension arrears, and in advocacy of an 
amendment to make more efficient the methods of detecting 
pension frauds by taking expert examiners from one part of the 
country and sending them to another. In this connection he 
referred to his own experience as Secretary of the Interior, say- 
ing that he had declared that with $100,000 to so use he 
could save $1,000,000 to the Treasury yearly. Upon the same 
day, he also spoke briefly upon the Sundry Civil Appropriation 
bill, opposing a proposition in it to re -open a settled claim 
of the war of 1812, based on expenditures made by some of the 
older States for military purposes. He spoke from recollection 
of a discussion in 1S57, when this matter came np, and showed 
that the i)rincipal of the claims had been already paid, nnd that 
this was an attempt to collect compound interest. This measure, 
which Mr. Chandler repeatedly opposed during his Senatorial 
career, was again defeated at this time. On March 1, a proposi- 
tion to pay Georgia over $72,000 compound interest upon 
advances alleged to have been made in 1835 -'38 in the Creek, 
Seminole and Cherokee wars was strenuously and successfully 
opposed by him. On the 28th of February, a bill had been 
passed by the Senate making appropriations foi* the ari-earages of 
pensions. To this an amendment was offered and adopted 
extending to those who served in the war with Mexico the pro- 
visions of the law passed in 1878, giving pensions to the sur- 
viving soldiers of 1812. This amendment was adopted without 
full consideration, and on the evening of Sunday, March 2, a 
motion was made and carried for a reconsideration. Then an 
amendment was offered excluding persons who served in the 
Confederate army or held any oflSce under the " Confederacy " 



"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH." 379 

from the benefits of this bill. This amendment was defeated 
by the votes of the Democrats and two Southern Republicans, 
Another amendment was offered by Senator Hoar excluding 
Jefferson Davis from the benefits of any pension bill. An aston- 
ishing debate followed. For some hours the Senate Chamber 
rang with fervent eulogies upon the arch -rebel of the South. 
Senator Garland declared that Davis's record would "equal in 
history all Grecian fame and all Roman glory." Senator Maxey 
pronounced him '"'a battle-scarred, knightly gentleman." Senator 
Lamar characterized the proposition as a "wanton insult," spring- 
ing from "hate, bitter, malignant sectional feeling, and a sense 
of personal impunity ; " he added, " The only difference between 
" myself and Jefferson Davis is that his exalted character, his 
" pre - eminent talents, his well - established reputation as a states- 
" man, as a patriot, and as a soldier enabled him to take the 
" lead in a cause to which I consecrated myself ; " he further 
declared that Davis's motives were as "sacred and noble as ever 
inspired the breast of a Hampden or a Washington." Senator 
Harris pronounced him " the peer of any Senator on this floor." 
" I will not," said Senator Coke, " vote to discriminate against 
Mr. Davis, for I was just as much a rebel as he." Senator 
Ransom said, " I shall not dwell upon Mr. Davis's pulilic serv- 
" ices as an American soldier and statesman. He belongs to 
" history, as does that cause to which he gave all the ability of 
" his great nature." There was no lack of Republican protest 
against this apotheosis of unrepentant treason, but it was not 
wholly free from a certain deprecatory tone. The Senators who 
spoke in support of Mr. Hoar's projjosition rather remonstrated 
against than denounced the assumption that it was their duty to 
quietly assent to legislation which would place the unamnestied 
and still defiant representative of the Great Rebellion on the pen- 
sion-rolls of the nation. After the debate had lasted for over 
two hours, Mr. W. E. Chandler of New Hampshire, who was 



380 



ZA(;iIAKIAH CHANDLER. 



wak-Iiiug its progress from the rej^orters' gallery, said to Senator 
E. II. Kollius uf his State, ''Tell Zach. Chandler that he is the 
man to call Jelf. Davis a traitor." Mr. Rollins delivered the 
message, which was received with a nod of acqniescence in the 
direction of the gallery. Senatoi- Morgan of Alabama Mas 
speaking at the time, with Senator Mitchell of Oregon in the 
chair. As Mr. Morgan closed, Senator ('liaiidler rose and said: 

Mr. President, twenty -two years ago to-morrow, in the old Hall of the 
Senate, now occupied by the Supreme Court of the United States, I, m com- 
pany with Mr. .Jefferson Davis, stood up and swore before Almighty God that 
I would support the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Jefferson Davis 
came from the Cabinet of Franklin Pierce into the Senate of the United States 
and took the oath with me to be faithful to this government. During four 
years I sat in this body with Mr. Jefferson Davis and saw the preixirations 
going on from day to day for the overthrow of this government. With treason 
in his heart and perjury upon liis lips he took the oath to sustain the govern- 
ment that he meant to overthrow. 

Sir, there was method in that madness. Ho, in co-operation with other 
men from liis section and in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, made careful pre- 
paration for the event that was to follow. Your armies were scattered all 
over this broad land where tliey could not be used in an emergency ; your 
fleets were scattered wherever the winds blew and water was found to float 
them, where they could not be used to put down rebellion ; your Treasury 
was depleted until your bonds bearing six per cent., principal and interest 
payable in coin, were sold for 88 cents on the dollar for current expenses, and 
no buyers. Preparations were carefully made. Your arms were sold under 
an apparently innocent clause in an army bill providing that the Secretary of 
War might, at his discretion, sell such arms as lie deemed it for the interest 
of the government to sell. 

Sir. eighte-n years ago last month I sat in these halls and listened to 
Jefferson Davis delivering his farewell address, informlHg us what our consti- 
tutional duties to this government were, and then he left and entered into the 
rebellion to overthrow the government that he had sworn to support ! I 
remained here, sir, during the whole of that terrible rebellion. I saw our 
brave soldiers by thousands and hundreds of thousands, aye, I might say 
millions, pass through to the theater of war, and I saw their shattered ranks 
return ; I saw steamboat after steamboat and railroad train after railroad train 
arrive with tlie mnimed and the wounded ; I was with my friend from Rhode 
Island (Mr. Burnside) when he commanded the Army of the Potomac, and 
saw piles of legs and arms that made humanity shudder; I saw the widow 
and the orplian in their homes, and heard the weeping and wailing of those 



382 • ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

who lutil lost their dearest and their best. Mr. Pres'uU'iil, I liltle lliouijht at 
that time that I should live to hear in the Senate of the United States eulo- 
gies upon Jefferson Davis, living — a living rebel eulogized on the tloor of the 
Senate of the United States ! Sir, I am amazed to hear it ; and I can tell the 
gentlemen on the other side that they little know the spirit of the North 
when they come here at this day, and, with bravado on their lips, utter eulo- 
gies upon a man whom every man, woman, and child in the North believes 
to have been a deuble-dyed traitor to his government. 

This speech was made at about the hour of lialf-past three 
in the morning of Monday, March 3, 1879. But few people 
were in tlie galleries at that time, and the Senate had lapsed 
into a listless state. Mr. Chandler's bearing as he arose to speak, 
and the first sentence that resounded through the Senate Chamber 
in his strong voice, aroused instant attention. The spectators 
above listened with new and eager interest, Senators came in 
from the lobbies and cloakrooms, sleep was shaken off by drowsy 
attaches, and his closing words " a double - dyed traitor to his 
government " fell in ringing tones upon an intent audience and 
were answered by an applause from tlie galleries which the 
gavel of the presiding officer could not check. His excited 
hearers listened eagerly for a reply, but none came. After 
some silent waiting the presiding officer stated the pending 
question, and was about to put it to vote. Senator Thurman 
then rose and began the discussion of another branch of the 
subject, and no answer was attempted to Mr. ChamUer''s just 
denunciation of the eulogizing of the man, whose past history 
and present attitude unite to make him at once the representa- 
tive of treason's crimes and the embodiment of its unrepentant 
spirit. When the vote was taken, one majority was given for 
Mr. Hoar's amendment, and after that result the original ameiul- 
ment itself was defeated. 

This speech was a masterpiece in its way — in its brevity, in 
its skillful use of the speaker's early official association with 
Jefferson Davis, in its vivid epitome of the history of American 
treason, and in the rugged power of its simple language. It 
most profoundly stirred the people. It may be said witliout 



"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH." 383 

exaggeration that years had passed since any Congressional utter- 
ance had received such pnbhc attention. Democratic and Southern 
denunciation of Mr. Chandler followed abundantly, but this was 
wholly overshadowed by the enthusiasm of the response of the 
patriotic sentiment of the Union to his indignant refusal to 
let treason raise its head in insolence without branding it as 
it deserved. The Northern press reprinted the speech with 
unstinted praise. Public men hastened in person, by telegraph, 
and through the mails to tender their congratulations. Letters 
of fervent thanks poured in by the hundreds; from utter 
strangers, from the rich and the humble, from veteran soldiers, 
from mothers whose sons were buried on Southern battle-fields, 
from the colored men, from the Republicans of the South, from 
every State and Territory came the expressions of gratitude for 
the utterance given at so opportune a moment and with such 
force to the loyal feeling of the republic. It was this spontane- 
ous approval of the masses of the people that Mr. Chandler 
especially prized. 

On March 18, 1879, the extra session of the Forty -sixth 
Congress commenced, and the Democrats made their abortive 
attempt to force the repeal of the laws relating to the supervision 
of national elections by withholding appropriations. Their reac- 
tionary programme (the striking of the last vestige of the war 
measures from the statute books was even threatened) and revo- 
lutionary menaces aroused the North, and in the end they 
quailed before the rising popular wrath. Mr. Chandler denounced 
their schemes vigorously on the floor of the Senate, even charg- 
ing explicitly that twelve of tlie Southern Senators "held their 
seats by fraud and violence." He also earnestly opposed all 
propositions to compel the unlimited coinage of the silver dollar 
of 412^ grains, a measure which would have given to the 
country a superabundance of silver currency of depreciated value 
to the exclusion of gold. His last Congressional speech was this 



•"^^•i ZACITARTAII CHANDLER. 

carefully prcparcfl and forcible " arraip:nment of the Democratic 
party," of wliicli tens of thousands of copies were circulated 
throughout the Union in the following cauipaign : 

We have now spent three months and a half in this Capitol, not without 
certain results. We have shown to the people of this nation just what the 
Democratic party means. The people have been informed as to your objects, 
cuds, and aims. By fraud and violence, by shot-guns and tissue ballots, you 
hold a present majority in both Houses of Congress, and you have taken an 
early opportunity to show what you intend to do with that majority thus 
obtamed. You are within sight of the promised land, but like Moses of old 
we propose to send you up into the mountain to die politically. 

JVIr. President, we are approaching the end of this extra session, and Its 
record will soon become history. The acts of the Democratic party, as mani- 
fested in this Congress, justify me in arraigning it before the loyal people of 
the United States on the political issues which it has presented, as the enemy 
of the nation and as the author and abettor of rebellion. 

1. I arraign the Democratic party for havmg resorted to revolutionary 
measures to carry out its partisan projects, by attempting to coerce the E.xecu- 
tive by withholding supplies, and thus accomplishing by starvation the 
destruction of the government which they had failed to overthrow by arms. 

2. I arraign them for having injured the business interests of the country 
by forcing the present extra session, after liberal compromises were tendered 
to them prior to the close of the last session. 

3. I arraign them for having attempted to throw away the results of the 
recent war by again elevating State over National Sovereignty. We expended 
$5,000,000,000 and sacrificed more than 300,000 precious lives to put down 
this heresy and to perpetuate the national life. They surrendered this heresy 
at Appomattox, but now they attempt to renew this pretension. 

4. I arraign them for having attempted to damage the business interests 
of the country by forcing silver coin into circulation, of less value than it 
represents, thus swindling the laboring -man and the producer, by compelling 
them to accept 85 cents for a dollar, and thus enriching the bullion -owners at 
the expense of the laborer. Four million dollars a day is paid for labor alone, 
and by thus attempting to force an 85 cent dollar on the laboring -man 
you swindle him daily out of $600,000. Twelve hundred million dollars are 
paid yearly for labor alone, and by thus attempting to force an 85 -cent dollar 
on the laboring -man you swindle him out of if! 180, 000, 000 a year. The 
amount which the producing class would lose is absolutely incalculable. 

5. I arraign tliem for having removed without cause experienced officers 
and employes of this body, some of whom served and were wounded in the 
Union army, and for appointing men who had in the rebel army attempted 
to destroy this government. 



THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH." 385 



6. I arraign them for having instituted a secret and illegitimate tribunal, 
the edicts of which have been made the supreme governing power of Con- 
gress in defiance of the fundamental principles of the constitution. The 
decrees of this junta are known although its motives are hidden. 

7. I arraign them for having held up for public admiration that arch- 
rebel, Jefferson Davis, declaring that he was inspired by motives as sacred 
and as noble as animated Washington ; and as having rendered services in 
attempting to destroy the Union which will equal in history Grecian fame 
and Roman glory. [Laughter on the Democratic side and in portions of the 
galleries.] You can laugh. The people of the North will make you laugh on 
the other side of your faces ! 

8. I arraign them for having undertaken to blot from the statute-book 
of the nation wise laws, rendered necessary by the war and its results, and 
insuring "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to the emancipated f reed- 
men, who are now so bulldozed and ku - kluxed that they are seeking peace in 
exile, although urged to remain by shot-guns. 

9. I arraign them for having attempted to repeal the wise legislation 
which excludes those who served under the rebel flag from holding commis- 
sions in the army and navy of the United States. 

10. I arraign them for having introduced a large amount of legislation 
for the exclusive benefit of the States recently in rebellion, which, if enacted, 
would bankrupt the national Treasury. 

11. I arraign them for having conspired to destroy all that the Repub- 
lican party has accomplished. Many of them breaking their oaths of allegiance 
to the United States and pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honors to overthrow this government, they failed, and thus lost all they 
pledged. 

Cnll a hall. The days of vaporing are ovei'. The loyal North is aroused 
and their doom is sealed. 

I accept the issue on these arraignments distinctly and specifically before 
the citizens of this great republic. As a Senator of the United States and as 
a citizen of the United States, I appeal to the people. It is for those citizens 
to say who is right and who is wrong. I go before that tribunal confident 
that the Republican party is right and that the Democratic party is wrong. 

Tliey have made these issues ; not we ; and by them they must stand or 
fall. This is the platform which thej^ have constructed, not only for 1879 but 
for 1880. They cannot change it, for we will hold them to it. They have 
made their bed, and we will see to it that they lie thereon. 
^5 




CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1870 MK. CHANDLEr's LAST DAYS DEATH AND 

FUNERAL. 

'HE closing hours of the Forty -fifth Congress and the 
'xtra session of the Forty -sixth may be said to have 
revealed Mr. Chandler to the country. While lie had 
been well known he had not been truly known. He then 
became a central figure in the public attention. His utterances 
were universally discussed, and with discussion came a juster 
appreciation of the man. The people at last saw him as he was, 
the possessor of strong common -sense, a cool and indefatigable 
worker, a sagacious and fearless leader, a man who had never 
sacrificed principle to policy, who had never compromised with 
crimes against liberty or the nation's honor, whose most malig 
nant enemies had not accused him of being mfiuenced by corrupt 
motives, and one gifted with the rare capacity of saying the 
right thing at the right time m terse, impromptu sentences, in 
epigrams which became political mottoes. 

The campaign of 1879 followed closely upon the midsummer 
adjournment of Congress, and invitations to address the people 
came to Mr. Chandler from a score of States. No public speaker 
was in more urgent demand, or aroused a keener interest. The 
popular gatherings, which, during the summer and fall, greeted 
his every appearance from the shores of the Great Lakes to the 
Atlantic seaboard, amounted to a genuine ovation. His first 
address was delivered before the Republican State Convention of 
"Wisconsin, at Madison, on July 23. In August he made six 
speeches in Maine to immense mass meetings. In September he 



DEATH AND BURIAL. 38Y 

» 

visited Ohio, and spoke at Sandusky, Toledo, Warren, Cleveland, 

and other important points. His audiences in that State were 
uniformly large, and his Warren speech was delivered in the 
afternoon to an enormous crowd, one of the greatest ever called 
together upon such an occasion in the Western Reserve. He 
was greatly pleased by an invitation, which came to him at about 
this time, from Senator G. F. Hoar, to visit Massachusetts in 
October. It was unexpected, and he had believed that the 
Republican leaders in the Bay State were inclined to look upon 
him with distrust. He accepted it promptly, and spoke to enthu- 
siastic audiences in Boston, Worcester, Lynn and Lowell. Some 
brief remarks made at a dinner of the Middlesex Club, in which 
he urged the national importance of the pending contest, were 
especially useful in stimulating Republican activity and directing 
it into proj)er channels. He next addressed meetings in New 
York at Flushing, Albany, Troy, Potsdam, Lowville and Buffalo, 
amid increasing public interest. On returning home from that 
State in the last days of October, he revisited Wisconsin, and 
spoke to great crowds at Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Janesville, 
returning to Chicago, where, on the evening of October 31st, he 
made the last address of his life. 

The striking evidences of his hold upon the popular confi- 
dence, which manifested themselves during the summer and fall 
of 1879, led to the frequent mention of Mr. Chandler as a pos- 
sible presidential candidate in 1880. His friends in his own 
State were eager to formally present his n^ame to the National 
Convention, and the Republican press of Michigan united in 
earnestly advocating such a course. This movement also mani- 
fested strength in other States, and steadily increased in im23or- 
tance up to the hour of his death. Although Mr. Chandler was 
not insensible to this growing sentiment, little or nothing was 
done by him to promote it ; he favored the renomination of 
General Grant, and the presidential ambition he rated as the 



388 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

most fatal malady to which public men are subject." To one 
friend, who spoke of the popular feeling and his own desire in 
this matter, Mr. Chandler replied: "Yon may vaccinate me with 
the presidency and scratch it deep, but it won 't take." To 
another lie said : " No ! no ! Men recover from the small - pox, 
" cholera and yellow fever, but never from the presidential fever. 
" I hope I will never get it." The movement in that direction, 
which his death so abruptly checked, was spontaneous and sincere, 
and that it was growing in strength was undoubted. What limit 
that growth might have reached and with what result can only 
be conjectured. 

Repeatedly, during the arduous labors of the year, did Mr. 
Chandler's physical powers manifest signs of rebellion against 
excessive effort. In one of his Ohio speeches his voice suddenly 
failed, compelling him to cease speaking. He suffered several 
times from what seemed to be violent attacks of indigestion, 
and was on one or two occasions dangerously distressed by 
them. At Janesville he caught a severe cold, but when he 

* This letter, written to a prominent Republican of the Pacific coast, did not reach the 
gentleman to whom it was addressed until after Mr. Chandler's death, and was then given 

to the public ; 

Republican State Central Committee, } 
Detroit, I\Iich., Sept. 23, 18r9. f 

My Dear Sir : Your favor of 11th inst. is at liaiid, and contents noted. 

The prospects for the success of the Republican party in the national election next 
year look much more favorable now than they did the year preceding the election in 1876. 
Republicans are united, and earnestly preparing for success as the only hope of saving the 
country from the shot-gun rule of the Confederate Democracy. The Tammany bolt 
promises to give us New York both this year and next. 

Ohio is sure to go Republican, and there is hardly a doubt that every Northern State 
having a general election this fall will score a victory in favor of a free ballot and an hon- 
est count. 

Each Territory is entitled to two delegates in the National Republican Convention, 
under the rules heretofore adopted. I am under the impression now that Grant's chances 
for the nomination are better than those of any other person ; but unless he is nominated 
without a contest he will be out of the field, and there will be a trial of strength between 
the friends and supporters of a few stalwart radicals. 

No unknown man of lukewarm sentiments or obscure antecedents will be nominated. 

It is very possible that Michigan will present a name in the convention as well as 
Maine, New York, Ohio, and perhaps other States ; but I know nothing special in regard 
to the matter, only that, if General Grant is a candidate, no one else will be. Very truly, 

yours, Z. CHANDLER. 



liil!l!l!lllllll!S!l!!!i;i!l!ll!!lllllll!ll|||li 




390 ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 

reached Chicago, on the last day of his life, he seemed to be in 
his usual robust health, and showed but slight signs of fatigue. 
Those who called upon him ou that day at the Grand Pacific 
Hotel noted his fine spirits. Jlis address in that city was 
delivered before the Young Men's Auxiliary Kepublican Club in 
McCormick Hall, and he never spoke with more animation, nor 
more effectively. The audience applauded almost every sentence, 
and under that stimulus he rose to even more than his usual 
fervor of speech. His ringing sentence, " The mission of the 
" Republican 'psiYty will not end until you and I, Mr. Ciiairman, 
" can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of Mex- 
" icj, make Black Republican speeches wherever we please, vote 
" the Black Republican ticket wherever we gain a residence, and 
" do it with exactly the same safety tliat a rebel can travel 
" throughout the North, stop wherever he has a mind to, and 
" run for judge in any city he chooses," was followed by cheer 
after cheer, until the entire audience was standing and shouting. 
After closing his speech, Mr. Chandler returned to the Grand 
Pacific Hotel; a few friends chatted with him in his rooms for 
a short time, and at about midnight Representative Edwin 
Willits of Michigan, who had been one of his hearers, made a 
short call, and congratulated him upon the power of his closing 
appeal. After that, no man saw Mr. Chandler alive. At seven 
o'clock on the following morning, in accordance with orders, one 
of the employes of the hotel knocked at his door. There was 
no answer, and a look over the transom showed a figure lying 
in an unnatural attitude on the edge of the bed with the feet 
almost touching the fioor. In alarm the I'oom was entered with a 
pass-key, and Mr. Chandler was found in a half reclining posture, 
with his coat about his shoulders, unconsciousness having appar- 
ently seized him while he was attempting to rise and summon 
help. Medical aid was promptly at hand, but life was extinct. 
" A Power had passed from earth." Zachariah Chandler was 
dead ! 




BUST PROFILE OF ZACHAKIAH CHANDLER. 
[A sketch from Leonard W. Volk's plaster cast.] 



392 Z.VCIIARIAII CHANDLER 

The news spread at once throughout the great city in which 
he liad so suddenly fallen ; friends were soon by his bedside, 
while a large crowd gathered about the hotel. A coroner's jury 
was at once impaneled, Kstened to the testimony of the physi- 
cians, and returned a verdict tliat death had resulted from 
cerebral hemorrhage. Impressions of the features were taken by 
Leonard W. Volk, the eminent sculptor, and the lifeless body 
was then arranged by kind, if strange, luinds for the funeral 
casket. Before its removal to Detroit, thousands who cherished 
the memory of the man looked mournfully nj^on the dead face. 

The telegraph bore the intelligence of this sudden death 
promptly throughout the country, and the announcement was 
answered by unusual demonstrations of national grief. Through- 
out the cities and towns of Michigan, at Washington, and in 
many other places where his name was well known, the insignia 
of mourning were at once displayed. Public men sent prompt 
dispatches of sympathy to his family, upon Avhom the blow had 
fallen with prostrating force. Especially significant were the 
newspaper tributes to the memory of the bold, resolute, and suc- 
cessful leader of men, whose star had not set, but had gone out 
at the zenith. The President of the United States issued this 
official order: 

Executive Mansion, "Washington, Nov. 1, 1879. 

The sad intelligence of tlie death of Zachariah Chandler, late Secretary of 
the Interior, and during so many years Senator from the State of Michigan, 
has been communicated to tlic government and to the country, and, in proper 
respect to his memory, I liereby order that the several executive departments 
he closed to public business, and their flags, and those of their dependencies 
throughout the country, be displayed at half-mast on the day of his funeral. 

R. B. HAYES. 

From the E.xecutive Mansion also came this dispatch of per- 
sonal condolence : 

"WAsnixr.TON, T>. C, Nov. 1, 1879. 
Mrs. Z. Ch'inJlcr. 

Mrs. Hayes joins me in the expression of the most hear! felt .'sympathy 
with vou in vour irreat bereavement. R. B. HAYES. 






/^ 






GEN. L". S. GRANT S TRIBUTE. 

[ His endorsement on W. A. Gavett's official notification, as a member of the 
Detroit Commandery K T to attend Mr. Chandler's funeral.] 



39i ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

The following proclamation was published by the Governor 
of Michigan : 

Executive Office, Lansing, Nov. 1, 1879. 
To the People of Michigan: 

All emiucnt citizen has suddenly been taken from us. Zacluuiah Chand- 
ler wAs found dead in his room at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago early 
this morning. For nineteen years he has represented this State in the National 
Senate. He heki this exalted portion at the most perilous period in the 
history of the nation, and unfalteringly supported every measure for the main- 
tenance of the Union. A member of the Cabinet under the recent administra- 
tion of President Grant, he proved himself a public officer of keen sagacity, 
of incorruptible integrity and of admirable ability. A resident of Michigan 
during the whole period of his manhood, lie has been active in advancing the 
interests of the State and promoting its growth. By his energy he secured a 
competence, and b}^ his integrity the confidence of all. A statesman and a 
leader among men, he combined in an unusual degree qualities which com- 
manded respect and admiration. Taken from us so unexpectedly, we cannot 
but deeply feel and deplore his loss. I, therefore, as a tribute to his memory 
and to his public services, hereby direct the several State offices to be closed 
to public business, the fiags to be displayed at half-mast, and the other dem- 
onstrations of public grief usual to be made, on the day of his funeral. 

CHARLES M. CROSWELL. 

An unofficial tribute, highly prized by Mr. Chandler's friends, 
was that of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who wrote upon the reverse 
of a funeral order issued by the Detroit Commandery of Knights 
Templar (shown him by W. A. Gavett) these lines: 

A nation, as well as the state of Michigan, mourns the loss of one of 
her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler was beloved 
by his associates and respected by those who disagreed with his political 
views. Tlie more closely I became connected with him the more I appreci- 
ated his great merits. U. S. GRANT. 

Galena, 111., Nov. 9, 1879. 

On the morning of Sunday, N"ovember 2, an escort of the 
militia and of the people of Chicago accompanied the body of 
the dead Senator from the Grand Pacific Hotel to the depot, and 
delivered it to a committee of prominent citizens of Michigan, 
who had arrived to receiv^e it. The burial-ca.se was wrapped 
in the national flag, and, when it had been placed in the car, its 



DEATH AND BURIAL. 895 

lid was opened and the face exposed. The train stopped at 
Kiles, Kalamazoo, Marshall, Jackson, and Ann Arbor, and at each 
place crowds came on board to look at the remains. When 
Detroit was reached, thousands of grief - stricken people were at 
the depot, and in solemn procession they joined the military 
escort in the march to the Chandler mansion. There a few 
loving friends received and looked upon the silent and lifeless 
form. To gratify the earnest desire of the many who wished 
to behold again the strong, earnest face of Zachariah Chandler 
before it was forever covered from mortal sight, the body was 
removed on the morning of November 5 to the City Hall, where 
it lay until one o'clock ; a guard of honor kept watch at the 
head and foot of the casket, and on either hand, for five hours, 
a double file of men and women passed in steady march. Thou- 
sands of mournful glances were given at the placid face of the 
dead, and many affecting incidents made touching this parting 
tribute of the people. Then, from the City Hall, the body was 
borne to the Fort street residence for the last time. The day 
was cold and blustering; a blinding snow-storm set in. Yet 
the streets were thronged by the sad multitude, while every 
train brought from Michigan and from other States hundreds 
to increase the sorrowing concourse; among them were men 
of great reputations founded on useful and honorable public 
careers. After impressive funeral services at the house, the 
remains of Michigan's great Senator, escorted by the militia of 
Detroit and of the neighboring cities, by the United States 
troops, by civic societies, by Governors, Senators, Congressmen, 
Legislators of Michigan and of other States, and by hundreds 
of friends, passed slowly through the streets draped in mourn- 
ing, and lined with dense crowds of people who braved the 
storm to pay this last honor to Zachariah Chandler. At the 
gates of Elmwood Cemetery the militia and ^ivic societies halted, 
presenting arms as the hearse rolled slowly on under its trees. 



3»6 ZACHARIAH CHANDLElt. 

Upon a high knoll, fronting on Prospect Avenue, it halted; 
the coffin was drawn slowly out, poised a moment over an open 
grave, lowered to its resting- jDlace, and "• I am the resurrection 
and the life " rose up in solemn tones above the sobbings of 
family and friends. Living green branches and flowers fell softly 
down upon the casket, and a new mound grew up beside where 
Senator Chandler's brother already lay. 

Thus was Zachariah Chandler buried. Living, he was hon- 
ored. Dead, he was mourned. Tliough dead, his labors and his 
example remain, and they form his fittest monument. 



APPENDIX 



THE LAST SPEECH 



ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 



Delivered in McCormick Hall, in the City op Chicago, on the 
Night op his Death, October 31, 1879. 



[Republished by permissioa of Ritchie & Williston, Stenographers, Room S3, Howlaiid 
Block, Chicago.] 



Mr. Chairman and Fellow - Citizens : It has become the custom of 
late to restrict the lines of citizenship In the Senate of the United States 
and in the halls of Congress you will hear citizenship described as confined 
to States, and it is denied that there is such a thing as national citizenship. 
I to-night address you, my fellow - citizens of Chicago, in a broad sense as 
fellow - citizens of the United States of America. [Applause.] A great crime 
has been committed, my fellow - citizens — a crime against this nation , a crime 
against republican institutions throughout the world ; a crime against civil lib 
erty, and the criminal is yet unpunished — that is to say, he is not punished 
according to his deserts. [Applause,] And I shall to-night devote myself 
chiefly to the history of a crime, and shall endeavor to hold up the criminal 
to your execration. [ Renewed applause.] 

But, first, it is proper for me to allude to certain matters of national 
importance, which are at this present moment living issues. Twelve years ago 
an idea was started in the neighboring State of Ohio, called the "Ohio 
idea," which spread and bore fruit in different States. That idea was to pay 
something with nothing. [Laughter] From this Ohio idea sprang up a 
brood of other ideas. For example, the greenback idea, an unlimited issue 
of irredeemable currency, and a party was inaugurated in different States 
called the greenback party. It took root in Michigan last year, had a 
vigorous growth, put forth limbs, blossomed liberally, bore no fruit, and died. 
[Laughter and cheers.] Therefore, I shall pay no attention to the greenback 
party. It is not a living issue. [Laughter.] But the Ohio idea is still a 



APPENDIX. 



living issvie, and even during tlie last session of Congress a demand was 
made, and persistently n^ade, to repeal the liesuinption act that had been in 
existence for years. The resumption of specie payment was virtually accom- 
plished when, in 1874-5, that Resumption act became a law, for at that time 
we made that act so strong that there was no power on earth that could 
defeat the resumption of specie payments after it had once been inaugurated. 
[Applause.] We authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to use any bonds 
ever issued by the government, and in any amount that was necessary, to 
carry forward to success specie payments, as soon as the time arrived for 
the resumption. "We carefully guarded that law. True, we are under an 
obligation to the man who executed the law, but the resumption of specie 
payments was as much a fixed fact when that law was signed as it is to-day, 
and all the powers on earth combined could not break that resumption wlien 
it had once been inaugurated. 

But this Ohio idea, as I said, was to pay off your bonds with greenbacks. 
Well, my fellow -citizens, we have paid off $160,000,000 of your bonds in 
greenbacks within the last sixty or ninety days, and what more do you want ? 
Ah ! But the Ohio idea was something different from that. It was, as I said 
before, to pay something with nothing, and up to the final adjournment of 
the last regular session of Congress the attempt was still made to issue irre- 
deemable paper and force it upon the creditors of the nation. Now, if this 
paper which they propose to issue in paying off the bonds of your govern- 
ment was properly and truthfully described, it would read thus : " The 
government of the United States for value received" — for it was for value 
received ; no greenback was ever issued except for value received ; no bond 
of the government was ever issued except for value received — "for value 
"received, the government of the United States promises to pay nothing to 
"nobody, never." [Applause and laughter] That was the paper with which 
it was proposed by these men, entertaining then, and now entertaining the 
"Ohio idea," to redeem the bonds of your government. 

Now, you have heard, I presume, here m Chicago, the denunciation of the 
holders of your government bonds. The "bloated bondholder" was a term of 
reproach, both on the tloor of Congress and in the streets of Chicago and all 
over these United States. But who were the bloated bondholders V Why, 
my friends, every single man who has a dollar in the savings bank is a bloated 
bondholder, for there is not a savings-bank in the land, which ought to be 
entrusted with a dollar, whose funds are not invested in the bonds of your 
government. [Applause.] There is not a widow or orphan who has a fund 
to support the widow in her widowhood and the orphan in its orphanage, in 
a. trust company, who is not a bloated bondholder ; for there is not a trust 
company in the land that ought to be trusted which has not a large propor- 
tion of its funds in the bonds of your government. Every man who has his 
life insured, or his house insured, or his barn, or his lumber, or who has any 
insurance, is a bloated bondholder ; for there is not an insurance company, 
life, fire, marine, or of any other class of insurance, that ought to be trusted, 



Mii. CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH. v. 

which has not its funds invested in bonds of your government. You may 
go to the books of the Treasury to-morrow antl inquire and you will find 
ninety -nine men who own $100 and less of the bonds of your government, 
directly or indirectly, where you will find one man who owns $10,000 or 
more. And these men, entertaining the Ohio idea, would luin the ninety -nine 
poor men for the possible chance of injuring the one -hundredth rich man. 
And yet you may destroy the bonds of the rich man and you do him no 
harm, for he lias but a small amount of his vast wealth in the bonds of your 
government, while the poor man, owning $100 or under as his little all, is 
utterly ruined. [Applausj.] 

You would not find a man, woman, or child in America who would 
touch the kind of paper I have described, if proffered to tliem. You say you 
would stop the interest on your bonded debt. Very well ! The holder of your 
bonib vv'ould say: "You do not propose to pay any interest. I hold a bond 
"for valuj received, with a given amount of interest payable on a given day. 
"Now I will hold your bonds until you men entertaining the Ohio idea are 
"buried in your political graves, and then I will appeal to an honest people, 
"to an honest government, to pay an honest debt." [Applause] "But," say 
tho33 men, "pay off your foreign bnnds." I see men before me who remem- 
bor the days of General Jackson, and they likewise remember that in the time 
of General Jackson the government of France owed to the citizens of the 
United States 05,000,033, which France did not refuse to pay, but neglected 
to pay. It ran along from decade to decade, unpaid. General Jackson sent 
for the French minister and said : "Unless that $5,003,033 due to the citizens 
of the United States is paid, I will declare war against France." [Applause.] 
General Jackson was remonstrated with. It w juld disturb the commercial 
relations, not only of this country, but the world. Said he, "Unless France 
pays that $5,003,030, by the Eternal, I will declare war against France." 
[Applause.] Every man, Avoman and child and the King of France knew 
that he would do it, and the $5,003,030 was paid to the United States. It is 
not $5,003,003 that your government owes to the citizens of the world, but it 
is more than fifty times five million, and it i3 scattered in every nation with 
which we have commercial relations, or where money is found to invest 
in your bonds. You say you v.'ill stop the interest on t!iosc bonds. How 
long do you think it v/ould be before a British fleet v/ould come sailing to 
your coast, foUovred by a Frencli fleet, and a German fleet, and a Russian, 
and an Austrian, and a Spanish and an Italian fleet, and the British Admiral 
would step ashore and say: "I have $50,033,030 of t'ne bonds of this 
"government belonging to the citizens of Great Britain, which I am ordered 
"to collect!" The answer is : " Your account is correct, sir. The govern- 
"ment of the United States owes just $50,000,000 to the citizens of Great 
"Britain, and here is your money, sir." 

[Mr. Chandler, suiting the action to the word, held out a sheet of paper 
with $50,000,000 written upon it, and the audience burst out into loud and 
long -continued laughter.] 
20 



APPENDIX. 



The British Admiral looks at it and says: "What's that?" 

" Why, mouey. Don't you see ? Why, it is a lirst mortgage on all the 
"property of all the citizens of all the United States." [Laughter.] "Don't 
"you see the stamp of the government?" [Laughter.] 

Says the Admiral : " Where is it payable ?" 

"Nowii'-re." [Laughter and applause.] 

"To whom is it payable?" 

"Nobody." [Laughter.] 

"When is it made payable?" 

"Never." [Renewed laughter and cheers.] 

'Why," sa)'s the Admiral, "I don't know any such money. My orders 
"are to collect this $50,000,030 in the coin of the world, and unless it is so 
"paid my orders are to blockade every port of these United States, and here 
"are all the navies of the earth to assist me, and to burn down every city 
"that my guns will reach." 

Honesty is the best policy with nations as well as with individuals. 
[Cheers.] "Well," they say, "perhaps you are right about this bond busi- 
"ness. It is an open question, and we will abandon that, but the national 
"banks — down with the national banks! [Laughter and applause.] Abolish 
"national banks and save interest." What do you want to abolish the national 
banks for? That is a living issue to-day — a present proposition of the 
Democratic party that I propose to hold up to your abhorrence before I get 
through to-night Whit do you want to "down with the national banks" 
for? I was in the Senate of the United States when that national banking 
law was passed. I was a member of that body and voted upon every proposi- 
tion made in it. I had had a little experience in state banks myself. 
[Laughter and applause] Michigan had a very large state bank circulation 
at one time [loud applause], and we called that "money" in those days 
wild -cat money [laughter], and it was very wild. [Renewed laughter and 
applause.] Chicago also had a little experience in those days as well as 
Michigan. In those days it was necessary for any man liable to receive a 
five -dollar note to carry, a counterfeit detector with him for three purposes 
First, to ascertain whether there ever was such a bank in existence. [Laugh- 
ter and applause.] Second, to ascertain whether the bill was counterfeit, and, 
third, to ascertain whether the bank had failed [laughter] —and as a rule it 
ha 1 failed. [ Laughter and applause.] Now, we had two objects in view in 
getting up that national banking law. First, we wanted to furnish an abso- 
lutely safe cir(!ulating medium, so that no loss could ensue to the bill -holder. 
Second, we wanted to furnish a market for our bonds which had become 
somewhat of a drug. We might just as well have put in state bonds as 
security for those bmk notes. It would have been just as legal, just as right, 
but we didn't knnv which one or how miny of those rebel States would 
repudiate thoir i)onds. and therefore we didn't piit in any. [Laughter and 
ai^plause.] We might just as well have put in railroad bonds, but we didn't 



MR. CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH. vii. 

know how many railroads would default in their interest. We might just as 
well have p:rt in real estate, but we didn't know whether the neighbors of 
the banker would appraise the real estate at its actual cash -selling value. 
[Applause and lavighter. ] And therefore we put in the bonds of your govern- 
ment at 90 cents on the dollar; so that to-day for every single 90 cents of 
national bank notes afloat there is lOD cents— (worth 102i cents) — of the 
bonds of your government deposited with the Treasurer of the United States 
for the redemption of tne 90 cents. [Applause.] And you don't knovv^ and 
you don't care whether the bank is located in Oregon, in Texas, in South 
Carolina. Mississippi, New York or Illinois, because you know there is 102|- 
cents to ■ day of the bonds of your government deposited with the Treasurer 
of the United States for the redemption of every 90 cents of national bank 
notes you hold. You don't know and you don't care whether the bank whose 
note you have in your pocket failed yesterday, last week, or last year, or 
whether it ever failed. And you never find that out, for if trouble comes the 
bonds are sold and your bank notes are redeemed the day after, or the week 
after, or the year after your bank has failed, precisely the same as though it 
had never failed. [Applause.] 

Now you .say, " Call in your bonds ; abolish the national bank notes." 
Very well ! You pass a law to ■ morrow repealing the charters of all your 
national banks. Call in the national bank notes ! Every national bank in 
America takes the exact amount of the circulation which it has, either in silver 
or gold or greenbacks, to the Treasury, leaves it there to redeem its notes, 
takes the bonds and distributes them among the stockholders of that bank, 
and tlie day after you have called in every national bank note that you have 
out, you pay the self -same amount of interest on your bonds that you paid 
the day before, not one farthing more nor less. You don't gain one cent, but 
you lose $16,500,000 of taxes paid this year and last year and every year upon 
the stock of the national banks to national, state and municipal governments. 
[Applause.] You gain nothing, and you lose $10,500,000. You distress the 
whole community of these United States by compelling your banks to call in 
$850,000,000, now loaned and now being used in commerce, manufactures and 
all the industries of the nation. You distress the people by forcing a recall 
of that amount. No, my friends, in my judgment you had better devote 
yourselves to something you understand, and let the national banks alone. 
[Applause and laughter.] 

But they say, "There is one thing that we know we are right on, and 
that is the free comage of silver." Every man who holds 85 cents worth of 
silver shall go to the Treasury or the mints of the United States and take a 
certificate of deposit for 100 cents, which shall pass as money. This was the 
Warner bill. This the Democratic party as a party was committed to, and is 
committed to, and on the veiy last day of the extra session by a majority 
vote of one, and only one, in the Senate of the United States we substantially 
laid that bill upon the table, every Republican voting aye, and every Demo 



viii. APPENDIX. 

crat, except four of five, voting no. [Applause.] Now, to-day, the laboring 
man can take goM or silver or paper, as he chooses, for his day's labor I 
am m favor of the dual standard. I am in favor of a silver dollar uilli 100 
cents in it. I am m favor of an honest dollar anywhere you can find it 
[ cheers 1, and I stand by an honest dollar. To-day the laboring man can 
take g;)ld or silver or paper, and they are all of equal value, because they are 
all interchangeable mto each otiier. The paper dollar costs nothing ; a silver 
dollar costs the government 85 cents — a fraction more now ; it has been a 
fr.iction less. But all three are of equal value. Now the very moment you 
commence issuing those certiticates of deposit freely to every man having 
bullion you banish gold from your circulating medium and make it an article 
of trallic and nothing else ; and you have but a single standard, and that is a 
depreciated standard. Now there is paid out in these United States every day 
for labor alone $4,000,000. By compelling the substitution of the silver dollar 
alone, you swindle the laboring man out of $000,000 a day. The laboring 
man who receives a dollar gets but 85 cents. The man who receives §10 a 
week gets $8.50, and no more. The farmer who sells a horse, or the man who 
sells a load of lumber, or a load of wheat, or anything else amounting to $100, 
receives but $85, and no more. You have but one single standard, anil that 
the silver standard, which, having banished gold, is worth precisely the metal 
that is in it. Who is benefited by this .substitution ? Why, my friends, not 
a living mortal is benetited, except the bullion -owner and the bullion- 
speculator. I do not charge these men with being bribed to pass that law, 
because I have no pro( i of it; but I do say that the bullion -owncis and the 
bullion -speculators can afford to pay $10,000,000 in bullion for the privilege 
of swindling the laboring men of the country out of 15 per cent, of all their 
earnings. [Applause.] They say, "That may all be true; we don't know 
how It is; we have not been bribed" — and I never knew a man that would 
own up that he was bribed in my life. [Laughter.] I don't say that they 
are, but I do say that they are engaged in a mighty mean business. [ Laughter 
and applause.] 

Bat there i? another question which is of vital interest to every man, 
woman and child in America, and that is this question of the enormous rebel 
claims against your government. I hold in my hand a list of the cliims now 
before the two houses of Congress, and being pressed— cotton claims, claims 
for the destruction of property, for quartermaster's stores, for every conceiv- 
able thing that war could produce. I have a list of claims right here [holding 
up several sheets of paper containing names and amounts] aggregating many 
hundreds of millions. And the only thing to day — the t'cnate and the House 
both being under the control of those Southern rcb:.'ls — the only protection, 
th) only barrier between the Treasury of the United States and those rebel 
claims is a presidential veto [che.?rs], and thank God for the veto! [Long- 
continued a])plause.J But these claims are not all. There arc claims innumer- 
able which they dare not yet present. You may go through every State in 



MR. CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH. ix. 

the South, and somewhere, hidden away, you will find a claim for every slave 
that ever was liberated. In the files of the Senate and the House you will 
find demands for untold millions of dollars to improve streams that do not 
exist — where you will have to pump the water to get up a stream at all. 
[Laughter and applause.] Demands for untold millions to build the levees of 
tho jVIississippi river ! We have already given the Southern people 32,000,000 
of acres of land which would be reclaimed by those Icvccs. and now Ihey 
propose to bankrupt your Treasury by telling you, .people of the North, to 
build the levels to make the lands which you gave them valuable. 

To show you that I am not over -stating this idea of Southern claims, I 
will reid you a petition which is now being circulated throughout the South : 
"We, the people of the United States, most respectfully petition your 
" honorable bodies to enact a law by which all citizens of every section of the 
"United States may be paid for all their property destroyed by the govern- 
"mants and armies on both sides, during the late war between the States, in 
"bonds, bcarmg 3 per cent, interest per annum, maturing within the next one 
"hundred years." 

Every soldier who served in the Northern army has been paid. Every 
dollar's worth of property furnished to the Northern army has been paid for. 
Every widow or orphan of a wounded soldier entitled to a pension has becu 
pensioned, so that there is no claim from the Nortii ; but this means that you 
shall do for tin South precisely what you have done for your own soldiers. 
But I have not yet reached the milk in this cocoa-nut. [Laughter.] 
"And we also petition that all soldiers, or their legal representatives, of 
"both armies and every seetioa, be paid in bonds or public lands for their 
"lost time [laughter], limbs, and lives while engaged in the late unfortunate 
"civil conflict." [Laughter and applause.] 

That all soldiers be paid for their lost time while fighting to overthrow 
your government ! That they shall be paid for their lost limbs and their lost 
lives while fighting to overthrow your government ! 

Ah, my fellow - citizens, they are in sober, serious, downright earnest. 
They have captured both houses of Congress, and the only obstacle to the 
payment of these infamous claims is the presidential veto, and there is not a 
man before me who has not a personal, direct interest in seeing to it that the 
rebels do not capture the balance of Washington. [Applause.] These rebel 
States are solid — solid for repudiating your debt, solid for paying these rebel 
claims ; they have repudiated their individual debts through the bankrupt 
law ; they have repudiated their State debts by scaling, and then refusing to 
pay the interest on what has been scaled ; they have repudiated their muni- 
cipal debts by repealing the charters of their cities, towns, and villages. And 
do you think they are more anxious to pay the debt contracted for their 
subjugation than they are to pay their own honest debts ? I tell 3'ou, No. 
They mean repudiation, and do not mean that your debt shall be of any more 
value than their own. When you trust them you are making a mistake, and 



X. APPENDIX 

I do not believe you will ever do it agiiin. [Laughter and applause, and 
voices : " We won't ! "] 

But we have a matter under consideration to - night of vastly more impor- 
tance than all the financial (luestions that can be presented to you, and that is. 
Is this or is it not a Nation ! We had sup[)osed for generations that this was 
a Nation. Our fathers met in convention to frame a constitution, and they 
found some dilBculty in agreeing upon the details of that constitution, and for 
a time it was a matter of extreme doubt whether any agreement could be 
reached. Acrimonious debate took place in that convention, but finally a 
spirit of compromise prevailed, and the constitution was adopted by the 
convention and submitted to the people of these United States. Not to the 
States, but to the people of the United States, and the people of the United 
Status adopted the constitution that was framed by the fathers, and for many 
long years the whole people of the United States believed that we had a 
Government. The whisky rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania, and was put 
down by the strong arm of the Government, and we still believed that we 
had a Government. We continued in that belief until the days of General 
Jackson, when South Carolina raised the flag of rebellion against the Govern- 
ment. Armed men trod the soil of South Carolina and threatened that unless 
the tariff was modified to suit their views thay would overthrow the Govern- 
ment. This was under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, in carrying out 
his doctrine. Old General Jackson took his pipe out of his mouth when he 
was told that Calhoun was in rebellion against the Government, and said : 
" Let South Carolina commit the first act of treason against this Government, 
and, by the Eternal, I will hang John C. Calhoun !" and every man, woman, 
and child in America, including Calhoun, knew that he would do it, and the 
first act of treason was not committed against the Government, for even the 
State of South Carolina, under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, had bowed 
to its power. 

We remained under that impression until I first took my seat in the 
Senate on the 4t]i day of March, 1857. Then, again, treason was threatened on 
the floor of the Senate and on the floor of the House. They .said then : "Do 
"this or we will destroy your Government. Fail to do that, and we will 
"destroy your Government." One of Ihem in talking to brave old Ben. Wade 
one day repeated this threat, and the old man straightened liimself ui> and 
said: "Don't delay it on my account." [Laughter.] Careful preparations 
were made to carry out these treasons. Jefferson Davis stepped out of the 
Cabinet of Franklin Pierce, as Secretary of War, into the Senate of the 
United States, and liecame cliairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. 
There was an innocent -looking clause in the general appropriation bill which 
read that the Secretary of War might sell such arms as he deemed it for 
the interest of the government to dispose of. Under that apparently innocent 
clause, your arsenals were opened ; your arms and implements of war went 
together with your ammunition; your accoutrements followed your arms; your 



MR. CHANDLER'S LAST SPELCH. xi. 

navy was scattered wherever the winds blew and sufficient water was found 
to float your ships, where they could not be used to defend your government. 
The credit of the government, whose 6 per cent, bonds in 1857 sold for 123 
cents on the dollar, was so utterly prostrated and debased that in February, 
1861— four years afterward — bonds payable, principal and interest in gold, 
bearing 6 per cent., were sold for 88 cents on the dollar, with no buyers for 
the whole amount. Careful preparations were made for the overthrow of 
your government, and when Abraham Lincoln [cheers] took the oath of 
office as President of the United States [cheers], you had no army, no navy, 
no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, nothing to protect the national 
life. Yet with all these discouragements staring us in the face, the Republican 
party undertook to save your government. [Applause.] We raised your 
credit, created navies, raised armies, fought battles, carried on the war to a 
successful issue, and, finally, when the rebellion surrendered at Appomattox, 
they surrendered to a Government. [Applause.] They admitted that they had 
submitted their heresy to the arbitrament of arms and had been defeated, 
and they surrendered to the government of the United States of America. 
[Applause.] They made no claims against this government, for they had 
none. In th3 very ordinance of secession which they had signed they had 
pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the overthrow of 
this government, and when they failed to do it, Ihey lost all they had pledged. 
[Cries of "Good."] They made no claims against the government because 
they had none. They asked, and asked as a boon from the government of 
the United States, that their miserable lives might be spared to them. 
[Applause.] We gave them their lives. They had forfeited all their property 
— we gave it back to them. We found them naked and we clothed them. 
They were without the rights of citizenship, having forfeited those righls, and 
we restored them. We took them to our bosoms as brethren, believing that 
they had repented of their sins. We killed for them the fatted calf, and 
invited them to the feast, and they gravely informed us that they had always 
owned that animal, and were not thmkful for the invitation. [Great laughter 
and cheers.] By the laws of war, and by the laws of nations, they were 
bound to pay every dollar of the expense incurred in putting down that 
rebellion. Germany compelled France to pay $1,000,000,000 in gold coin for a 
brief campaign. The seceding States were I)ound by the laws of war and by 
the laws of nations to pay every dollar of the debt contracted for their subju- 
gation, but we forgave them that debt, and, to-day, you are being taxed 
heavily to pay the interest on the 'debt that they ought to have paid. 
[ Applause.] Such magnanimity as was exhibited by this nation to these 
rebsls has never been witnessed on earth [applause], and, in my humble 
judgment, will never be witnessed again. [Cheers.] Mistakes we undoubtedly 
made, errors we committed, and I will take my full share of responsibility 
for the errors, for I was there, and voted upon every proposition ; but, in my 
humble judgment, the greatest mistake we made, and the gravest errof we 



xii. APPENDIX. 

committed was in not Imnsing enough of these rebels to make treason forever 
odious. [ Prolonged chei-rs.] Somebody committed a crmie. Either those 
men who rose in rebellion committed the greatest crime iinown to human law, 
or our own brave soldiers, who went out to fight to save this government, 
were murderers. Is there a man on tlij f.ice of the earlh who dares to get 
up and say that our brave soldiers, who bared theh* breasts to the bullets of 
the rebels, were anything but patriots? [Cheers.] 

And now, after twenty years — after an absence of four years from tiie 
Senate — I go back and take my seat, and what do I find? The self same 
pretensions arc rung in my ears from day to day. I might close my eyes 
and leave my ears open to the discussions that are going on daily in 
Congress, and believe that I had taken a Rip Van Winkle sleep of twenty 
years. [Applause.] Twenty j^ars ago the}' said ; "Do this or we will shoot 
"your government to death! Fail to do that or we will shoot your govern 
" mcnt to deatli ! '.' To day 1 go back and find these paroled rebels, who have 
never been relieved from their parole of honor to obey the laws, saying : " Do 
" this ! obey our will, or we will starve your government to death ! Fail to 
"obey our will, and we will starve j'our government to death!" Now. if I 
am to die, I would rather be shot dead with musketry than be starved to 
dcatli. [Laughter and applause.] 

These rebels — for they arc just as rebellious now as they were twenty 
years ago — there is not a particle of difference — these reb;'ls to-day have 
thirty -six members on the ftoor of the House of Representatives, without one 
single c instituent, and in violation of law those thirty -six members represent 
4,01)0,000 people, lately slaves, who are as absolutely disfranchised as if they 
lived in another sphere, through shot-guns, and whips, and tissue ballots ; for 
the law expressly says, whi'rever a race or class is disfranchisjd they shall not 
be represented upon tlic floor of the House. [Applause.] And these thirty -six 
members thus elected constitute three times the whole of their majority upon 
the floor of the House. Now, my fellow -citizens, this is not only a violation 
of law, but it is an outrage upon all the loyal men of these United States. 
[Applause] It ought not to be. It must not be. [Applause.] And it shall 
not be. [Tremendous cheers.] 

Twelve members of the Senate — and that is more than their whole 
majority — twelve members of tlie Senate occupy their seats upon that floor 
by fraud and violence, and I am saying no more to you in Cliicago than I 
said to those rebel generals to their faces on the fioor of the Senate of the 
United Slates. [Enthusiastic applause.] Twelve members of that Senate 
were thus elected, and with majorities thus obtained by fraud and violence 
in both houses, they dare to dictate terms to tlie loyal men of these United 
States. [Applause.] With majorities thus obtained they dare to arraign the 
loyal men of this country, and say tliey want Iionest elections. [Laughter and 
applause.] They are mortally afraid of bayonets at the polls. We ollcred 
them a law forbidding any man to come within two miles of a polling place 



MR. CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH. xiii. 

with arms of any description, and they promptly voted it down [laughter and 
applause], for they wanted their Ku-Klux there. They were afraid, not of 
Ku-KIux at the polls, but of soldiers at the polls. Now, in all the States 
north of Mason and Dixon's line and east of the Rocky Mountains there is 
less than one soldier to a county. [Laughter.] There is about two -thirds of 
a soldier to a county. [Laughter and applause.] And, of course, about two- 
thirds of a musket to a county. [Laughter.] Now, would not this great 
county of Cook tremble if you saw two -thirds of a soldier parading hmaself 
up and down in front of the city of Chicago. [Loud and long -continued 
applause and laughter.] But they are afraid to have inspectors. What are they 
afraid to have inspectors for ? The law creating those inspectors is imperative 
that one must be a Democrat and the other a Republican. They have no power 
whatever except to certify that the election is honest and fair. And yet they 
are afraid of tlicse inspectors, and then they are afraid of marshals at the 
polls. Now, while the inspectors cannot arrest, the marshals under the order 
of the court can arrest criminals; therefore, they said: "We will have no 
mar.shals." Wliat they want is not free elections, but free frauds at elections. 
They have got a solid South by fraud and violence. Give them permission to 
perpetrate the same kind of fraud and violence in New York city and in Cin- 
cinnati and those two cities with a solid South will give them the presidency of 
the United States ; and once obtained by fraud and violence, by fraud and 
violence they would hold it for a generation. To-day eight millions of people 
in those rebel States as absolutely control all the legislation of this govern- 
ment as they controlled their slaves while slavery was in existence. Through 
caucus dictation now I find precisely what I found twenty years ago when I 
first took my seat in Congress. In a Democratic Congress, composed of 
twenty -eight Southern Democrats and sixteen Northern Democrats, they 
decreed that Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois should be degraded and disgraced 
from thj Committee on Territories, and there were but just two Northern 
Democratic senators who dnred even to enter a protest against the outrage. 
To-day there are thirty -tv»o Southern Democratic senators to twelve Northern, 
and out of the whole twelve there is not a man who dares protest against 
anything. [Applause.] I say, that through this caucus dictation, these eight 
millions of Southern rebels as absolutely control the legislation of this nation 
as they controlled their slaves when slavery existed. 

Now, if every man within the sound of my voice should stand up in this 
audience and hold up his right hand and swear that a rebel soldier was belter 
than a Union soldier, I would not believe it. [Laughter and applause] I 
would hold up both of my hands and swear that I did not believe it. [Cheers.] 
And yet, to-day, in South Carolina, in Alabairta, in Louisiana, in Mississippi 
and in several other States the vote of a rebel soldier counts more than two 
of the votes of the brave soldiers of Illinois ; for they vote for the uclto as 
well as for themselves, and their vote weighs just double the weight of that 
of the brave soldier in Illinois. It is an outrage upon freedom, an outrage 
upon the gallant soldiers of Illinois and Michigan. [Applause.] 



xiv. APPENDIX. 

Now, my fellow - citizens, I have undertaken to show you the condition 
in' wliicli the country was phiced when the Republican party assumed the reins 
of power. When the Republican party took the reins of power, the country 
had no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, no navv, no material 
of war. When the Republican party took the reins of power in its hands, 
there was no nation poor enough to do you reverence. You were the 
derision of the nations of the earth. You had but one ally and friend on 
earth, and that was little Switzerland. [Applause.] Russia sent her fleet 
to winter here for her own protection, but there was not a nation on God's 
earth, that did not hope and pray that your republican government might be 
overthrown, and there was no nation on earth poor enough to do you rever- 
ence. We fought that battle through ; we raised the nation's dignity, and the 
nation's honor, the national power and the national strength, until now, 
to-day, after eighteen years of Republican rule, there is no nation on earth 
strong enough not to do you reverence. [Loud and continued applause.] 
We took your national credit when it was so low that your bonds were 
selling at 88 cents on the dollar, bearing six per cent, interest and no takers, 
and we elevated your credit up, up, up, up, up until to - day your four per cent, 
bonds are selling at a premium in every market of the earth. [Applause.] So 
your credit stands higher than the credit of any other nation. [ Applause,] We 
saved the national life and we saved the national honor, and yet, notwith- 
standing all this, there are those who say that the mission of the Republican 
party is ended and that it ought to die. If there ever was a political organi- 
zation that existed on the face of this globe, which, so far as a future state 
of rewards and punishments is concerned, is prepared to die, it is that old 
Republican party. [Cheers ] But we are not going to do it. [Laughter and 
applause.] We have made other arrangements. [Renewed laughter and 
cheers.] 

The Republican party is the only party that ever existed, so far as I have 
been able to ascertain — so far as any record can be found, either in sacred or 
profane history — it is the only party that ever existed on earth which had 
not one single, solitary, unfulfilled pledge left [cheers] — not one [renewed 
cheers]; and I defy the worst enemy the Republican party ever had to name 
one single pledge it gave to the peoi)le who created it which is not to-day a 
fulfilled and an established fact. [Cheers.] The Republican party was created 
with one idea, and that was to preserve our vast territories from the blighting 
curse of slavery. We gave that pledge at our birth, that we would save lho.•^e 
territories from the withering grasp of slavery, and we saved them. [Voices 
"Yes, we did."] It is our own work. We did it. [Cheers.] But we did 
more than that ; we not only .saved your vast territories from the blighting 
curse of slavery, but we wiped the accursed thing from the continent of North 
America. [Tremendous cheering ] We pledgid ourselves to save your national 
life, and we saved your national life. We pledged ourselves to save your 
national honor, and we saved your national honor. [Applause.] We pledged 



MR. CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH. xv. 

ourselves to give you a homestead law, and we gave you a homestead law. 
[Applause.] We pledged ourselves to improve your rivers and your harbors, 
and we improved your rivers and your harbors. [Applause.] Wc pledged 
ourselves to build a Pacific railroad, and wc built a Pacific railroad. 
[Applause.] We pledged ourselves to give you a college land bill, and wc 
gave it to you , and, not to weary you, the last pledge ever given and the 
last to be fulfilled was that the very moment we were able we would redeem 
the obligations of this great government in the coin of the realm, and on the 
first day of January, 1879, we fulfilled the last pledge ever given by the 
Republican party. [Cheers and long -continued applause.] 

Notwithstanding all this, you say: "Your mission is ended and you 
ought to die." [Laughter and applause.] Well, my fellow -citizens, if we 
should die to-day, or to-morrow, our children's children to the twentieth 
generation would boast that their ancestors belonged to that glorious old 
Republican party [applause] that wiped that accursed thing, slavery, from 
the escutcheon of this great government. [Cheers.] And they would have 
a right to boast throughout all generations. 

Senator Ben. Hill of Georgia said, in my presence, that he was an 
"ambassador" from the sovereign State of Georgia [laughter] to the Senate 
of the United States. Su-ppose Ben. Hill should be caught in Africa or India, 
or some of those Eastern nations, and should get into a little difficulty, do 
you think he would raise the great flag of Georgia over his head [laughter] 
and say : "That will protect me." [Renewed laughter and applause.] My 
fellow - citizens, you may take the biggest ship that sails the ocean, put on 
board of her the flags of all the States that were lately in the rebellion against 
this government, raise to her peak the stars and bars of the rebellion, start her 
with all her bunting floating to the breeze, sail her around the world, and you 
would not gel a salute of one pop -gun from any fort on earth. [Loud and 
continued laughter and applause.] Take the smallest ship that sails the ocean, 
mark her " U. S. A." — United States of America — raise to her peak the 
Stars and Stripes, and sail her around the world, and there is not a fort or a 
ship -of -war of any nation on God's footstool that would not receive her with 
a national salute. [Cheers.] And yet the Republican party has done all this. 
We took your government when it was despised among the nations, and wc 
liave raised it to this high point of honor ; and yet you tell us we ought to 
die. [Laughter and applause.] 

Suppose there was a manufacturing concern here that failed about the 
year 1857, and the citizens of Chicago thought it very important that it be 
reorganized and resume business. You would buy the property for fifty cents 
on the dollar and reorganize it under your general laws, elect officers, and 
look about for a competent man to manage it. Finally you find what you 
believe to be the very man for that business and put him in possession. He 
finds that the machinery is not up to the progress of the age, and goes and 
buys new. He brings order out of confusion , he manages the business so 



APPENDIX. 



that the stock of the concern rises to par ; dividends are paid semi - annually 
and they grow larger and larger. The stock rises to two hundred, and none 
for sale. After eighteen years of successful management the manager comes 
in with his account -current and his check for the half-yearly dividend, and 
h\ys it l.eforc the president and the directors. The president has had a little 
conversation with his directors, and says : 

"This statement is very satisfactory, but wc have concluded that after the 
first day of July nc.\t we shall not require your services any longer." 

"Why," says the manager, "what have I done?" 

" Nothing that is not praiseworthy. We will give you a certificate that 
"we think you have managed this establishment with great ability and great 
" success. Wc will certify that we think you have no equal in the city of 
" Chicago or State of Illinois. Everything you have done is praiseworthy, and 
"we give you full credit for it; but eighteen 5'ears ago one of our employes 
" was caught stealing and sent to the penilentiiiry. He has now served his 
"time out, and we propose to put him in your place." [Prolonged laughter 
and cheers.] Wouldn't you say that the president and all of the directors 
should be put into a lunatic asylum on suspicion at once? [Applause and 
laughter .] 

Now, I tell you, Mr. Chairman, tlic mission of the Republican party is 
not ended. [Cheers.] I tell you, furthermore, Mr. Chairman, that it has just 
begun. [Cheers.] I tell you, furthermore, that it will never end until you 
and I can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of I>ie.\ico, make 
black Ilepul)lican speeches wherever we please [applause], vote the black 
Republican ticket wherever wc g.iim a residence [cheers], and do it with 
exactly the same safety that a rebel can travel throughout the North, stop 
wherever he has a mind to, and run for judge in any city he chooses. 

[This hit at the Democratic candidate for judge of the Cook County 
Superior Court, who was a rebel soldier during the war, set the audience 
wild, and they cheered and swung their hats and handkerchiefs franticall}'.] 

I hope after you have elected him judge he won't bring you in a bill for 
loss of time. [Laughter.] 

You ;nv' going to hold an election next Tuesday which is of importance 
far beyond the borders of Chicago. The eyes of the whole nation are upon 
you. By your v.erdict next Tuesday you are to send forth greeting to the 
people of the United States, sayi;^g, that either you are in favor of honest 
men, honest money, patriotism, and a National Government [cheers], or that 
you are in favor of soft money, repudiation, and rebel rule. [Cheers] It is 
a good symptom, Mr. Chairman, to see 600 young men like you in line, 
prepared tp carry the Hag of the Republican party forward to victoiy. 
[Cheers.] It is a good symptom to see (500 young men like my friend, the 
chairman here, in the front ranks, ready to fight the battles of their country 
now, and vote as they shot during the war. [Cheers.] 

Now, I want every single man in this vast audience to consider him.'^clf a 
committee of one to work from now until the polls close on Tuesday next. 



MR. CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH. xvii. 

[Cheers.] Find a man who might stay away, who has gone away and might 
not return ; secure one man besides yourself to go to the polls and vote the 
Republican ticket ; and if you cannot find such a man, try to convert a sinner 
from the error of his way. [Applause.] You have got too much at stake to 
risk it at this election. The times are too good. Iron brings too much. 
Lumber is too high. Your business is too prosperous. Your manufactories 
are making too much money for you to afford to turn this great govern- 
ment over to the hands of repudiating rebels. You cannot do it. Shut up 
your stores. Shut up your manufactories. Go to work for your country, and 
spend two days, and on the night of election, Mr. Cliairmnn, send me a dis- 
patcli, if you please, that Chicago has gone overwhelmingly Republican. [Loud 
cheers,] 



The Doric Pillar of Michigan. 



A M IH] MOR I AL ADDR ESS, 



Deliveked in the Fout Stueet Puesbytekian Church, Detroit, 
Mich., Thursday Mormng, Nov. 27, 1879, 



Thk Rev. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, 1). D. 



" There "were giants in the earth in those days," is the simple record of 
the age before the flood. 

There has been no age without its giants ; not, perhaps, in the narrow 
sense of great physical stature, but in the broader sense of mental might, 
capacity to command and control. Such men are but few, in the most favored 
times, and it takes but few to give shape to human history and destiny. Tlicir 
words shake the world ; their deeds move and mold humanity ; and, as 
Carlyle has suggested, history is but their lengthened shadows, the indefinite 
prolonging of their influence even after they are dead. 

One of these giants has recently fallen, at the commanding signal of One 
who is far greater tlian any of the sons of men, and at whose touch kings 
drop their sceptre, and, like the meanest of their slaves, crumble to dust. 

This giant fell among us. We had seen him as he grew to his great 
stature and rose to his throne of power. He moved in our streets ; he spoke 
in our halls ; in our city of the living was his earthly home, and in our city of 
tlie dead is liis place of rest. He went from us to the nation's capital, to 
represent our State in the Senate of the republic ; he belonged to IVIichigan, 
and Michigan gave him to the Union ; but he never forgot tlie home of his 
manhood. Here Ins dearest interests clustered, and his deepest affections 
gathered ; and here his most loving memorial will be reared. As he belonged 
]ieculiarly to this congregation, surely it is our privilege to weave the first 
wrcatli to garland his memory. 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xix. 

The annual Day of Thanksgiving is peculiarly a national day, since it is 
the only one in the year when the whole nation is called upon by its chief 
magistrate to give thanks as a united people. By common consent, it is 
admitted proper that, on that day, special mention be made of matters that 
alTect our civil and political well-bemg. There is therefore an eminent litness 
ill a formal commemoration upon this day of the life and labors of our 
departed Senator and statesman. 

With diffidence I attempt the task that falls to me. The time is too 
short to admit even a brief sketch of a life so long in deeds, so eventful in 
all that makes material for biography ; a life full, not only of incidents, but 
of crises ; moreover, I am neither a senator nor a statesman, and feel incom- 
petent to review a cireer which only the keen eye of one versed in affairs of 
state can apprehend or appreciate in its full significance ; but, if you will 
indulge me, I will, without conscious partiality or partisanship, calmly give 
utterance to the unspoken verdict of the common people as to our departed 
fellow - citizen ; and try to hint at least a few of the lessons of a life that 
suggests some of the secrets of success. 

History is the most profitable of all studies, and biography is the key of 
history. In the lives of men, philosophy teaches us by examples. In the 
analysis of character, we detect the essential elements of success and discern 
.the causes of failure. Virtue and vice impress us most in concrete forms ; 
and hence even the best of all books enshrines as its priceless jewel the 
story of the only perfect life. 

"Tcniraw even the profile of Mr. Chandler's public career the proper limits 

of this address do not allow. There is material, in the twenty years of his 
senatorial life, which could be spread through volumes. His advocacy of the 
great Northwest, whose champion he was ; his master -influence, first as 
a member, and then as the chairman of the Committee of Commerce ; 
his bold, keen dissection of the Harper's Ferry panic ; his sagacious organiza- 
tion of the presidential contests ; his plain declarations of loyalty to the 
Union as something which must be maintained at cost both of treasure and 
of blood ; his large practical faculty for administration, made so conspicuous 
during stormy times ; his efficiency as a member of the standing Committee 
on the Conduct of tlie War ; his exposure of those who were responsible for 
its failures, and his defense of those who promoted its successes , his marked 
influence in changing not only the channel of public sentiment, but the 
current of events . liis watchful guardianship of popular interests, political 
and financial ; liis intelligence and activity in senatorial debates ; his atten- 
tive and persistent study of the problem of reconstruclion ; and his fearless 
resistance to all Southern aggression and intimidation, are among the salient 
points of that long and eventful public service, whose scope is too wide to 
allow at this hour even a hasty survey. 

But, happily, it is quite needless that in such a jiresence I should trace 
m detail the events of his life : to us he was no stranger , and the m.ark he 



XX. APPENDIX. 

ha3 made upon our memory and our history is too deep not to last. His foot- 
prints arc not left upon treacherous and shifting quicksands ; and no wave of 
oblivion is likely soon to wash them away. 

Zachariah Chandler had nearly completed his sixty -sixth year; forty -six 
years ho had been a ie;ident of the City of the Straits. New Hampshire was 
the State of his nativity : Michigan was, in an emphatic sense, the State of 
his .-.doption. In our city his first success was won in mercantile pursuits, 
where also was the first field for the exhibition of his energy, ability and 
integrity. Here, as this century pissed its meridian hour, he passed the great 
turning-point m his career; and his large capacities and energies were 
diverted into a political channel. First, Mayor of the city, then nominated 
for Governor ; whe:i, more than twenty years ago, a successor was souglit for 
Lewis Cass in the Senate, this already marked man became the first repre- 
sentative of tho Republican party of this State in that august body at 
Washington. There, for a period of eighteen years, he sat among the 
mightiest men of the nation, steadily moving toward the acknowledged leader- 
ship of his party, and the inevitable command of public affairs After three 
terms in the SL'oato, his seat was occupied for a short time by another ; but, 
upon the resignation of Mr. Christiancy, he was, with no little enthusiasm, 
re-elected, and was in the midst of a fourth term, when suddenly he was 
no more numbered among the living. It may be doubled whclhcr, at this 
time, any one man, from Maine to Mexico, swayed C.c popular mind and 
will with a more potent sceptre than did he ; and many confidently believe 
and afiirm that, had death spared him, he would have been lifted by the 
omnipotent voice and vote of the people to the Presidency of the Republic. 

j\Ir. Chandler took his scat in the Senate in those days of strife when the 
storm was gathering, which, on the memorable 12lU of April, 1861, burst 
upon our heads, in the first gun fired at Fort Sumter. He entered the Senate 
chaml)cr, to take the oath of oflSce, in company with some whose names are 
now either famous or infamous for all time. On the one hand, there was 
Jefferson Davis ; on the other Hannibal Hamlin, Charles Sumner, Benjamin 
F. AVade and Simon Cameron. 

Those were days when history is made fast. Every day throbbed with 
big issues. Kansas was a battle-ground of freedom; and the awful struggle 
b^itween State Sovereignty and National Unity was gathering, like a volcano, 
f)r its terrible outbreak. The Republican Senator from Michigan took in, at 
a glance, the situation of affairs. Devoted as he was to the State, whose able 
advoc ite and zealous friend he was ; earnest and persistent as he was, in pro- 
moting the commercial and industrial interests of the lake region : he was yet 
too mu;;h a patriot to forget the whole country ; and as the great confiict, 
whicli .M;-. Sewanl named "irrepressible," moved steailily on toward its 
crisis, ho armed himself for the encounter and planted his feet upon the rock 
of unalterable allegiance to the Union ; and from that position he ucvcr 
swerved. 



iHE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxi. 

Mr. Chandler was a zealous party - man ; in the eyes of some he was a 
partisan, in the strenuous advocacy of some measures ; but I believe that 
when history frames lier ultimate, impartial verdict, she will accord to him a 
candid, conscientious adherence to what he believed to be a fundamental prin- 
ciple, absolutely essential to our national life. He saw the South breathing 
hot hate toward the North, planning and threatening to rend the Union 
asunder. To him it was not a question simply of liberty and slavery, of 
sectional prejudice, of political animosity ; but a matter of life or of death. 
He saw the scimitar of secession raised in the gigantic hand of war — but 
what was it that it was proposed to cleave in twain at one blow ? A living, 
vital form ! the body of a nation, with its one grand framework, its common 
brain and heart, its network of arteries and veins and nerves. It was not 
dissection as of a corpse — it was vivisection as of a corpus — that sharp blade, 
if it fell, would cut through a living form, and leave two quivering, bleeding 
parts, instead. Divide the nation ? Why, the same mountain ranges run 
down our eastern and western shores ; the same great rivers, which are the 
arteries of our commerce, flow through both sections. Our republic is a unit 
by the decree of nature, that marked our nation's area and arena by the lines 
of territorial unity, a unit by the decree of history that records one series oL, 
common experiences ; and, aside from the decree of nature and of history/it ^ 
is one by the decree of necessity, for we could not survive the separation. 
Those were the decisive days, and they showed whose heart was yearning 
toward the child ; and God said, as he saw a unanimous North pleading with 
Him to arrest the falling sword and spare the living body of a nation's life — 
"Give her the child, for she is the mother thereof!" 

Mr. Chandler has been charged with violent and even vindictive feeling 
toward what he deemed disloyalty and treason. 

You have heard the story of the Russians, chased by a hungry pack of 
wolves, driving at the height of speed over the crisp snow, finding the beasts 
of prey gaining fast upon them, and throwing out one living child after 
another to appease the maw of wolfish hunger, while the rest of the family 
hurried on toward safety. 

There are sagacious statesmen that have declared, for a quarter of a 
century, that Stata Rights represents the pack of wolves and the Sovereignty 
of the Union the imperilled household. For scores of years, the encroach- 
ments of the South became more and more imperious and alarming. 

Concession after concession was made, offering after offering flung to the 
sacrifice, but only to be followed by a hungrier clamor and demand for 
more; and, at last, even men of peace said, "We must stop right here and 
fight these wolves ; " and, when it becomes a question of life and death, men 
become desperate. 

I have never supposed myself to be a strong partisan. As a man, a citi- 
zen, and a Christian, I have sought to find the true political faith, and, finding 
it, to hold it, firmly and fearlessly. The question of the unity of our nation 
27 



xxii. APPENDIX. 

ami the sovereignty of the national govcrnnienl lias ever seemed to me to be 
of supreme moment, transcending all mere political or party issues ; and, as a 
patriot, I caimot be indifferent to it. 

When the long struggle between State Rights and National Sovereignty 
grew hot and broke out into civil war, it was a matter of tremendous conse- 
quence (hat the Union be preserved. History stood pointing, with solemn 
finger, to the fate of the republics of Greece and Switzerland, reminding us 
that confederation alone will not suffice to keep a nation alive. Mexico, at 
.our borders, was a warning against dismemberment or the loss of the suprem- 
acy of a republican unity. And men of all parties forgot party issues in 
patriotic devotion. It may be a question whether State Sovereignty, however 
fatal to national life, deserved the hideous name of treason, before the war. 
But, after the matter had been referred to the arbitrament of the sword, and 
had been settled at such cost of blood and treasure, it can never henceforth 
be anything but treason, again to raise that issue. Hence, even men that 
were temperate in their opposition to Southern aggressions before the war, 
now are impatient. They set their teeth with the resolution of despair, and 
say, " We make no further effort to escape this issue, and we tlirow out no 
" more offerings of concession. We shall tight these wolves ; and either State 
" Rights or National Sovereignty shall die." 

This was jVIr. Chandler's position ; if it was a mistaken one, it is the 
unspoken verdict of millions of the best men of all parties in the whole coun- 
try ; and every new concession to this gre it national heresy is only making 
new converts to the necessity of a firm and fearless resistance. 

Some one has suggested that the old division of the church into militant 
and triumphant is no longer sufficient ; we must add another, namely, the 
church termagant In our country both sections were militant, and one was 
triumphant ; the other has been very termagant ever since. General Grant, at 
his reception in Chicago, declared that the war for the Union had put the 
republic on a new footing abroad. A quarter of a century ago, by political 
leaders across the sea, " it was believed we had no nation. It was merely 
" a confederation of States, tied together by a rope of sand, and would give 
"way upon the slightest friction. They have found it was a grand mistake. 
" The}" know we have now a nation, that we are a nation of strong and 
" intelligent and brave people, capable of judging and knowing our rights, 
"and determined on all occasions to maintain them against either domestic or 
" foreign foes ; and that is the reception you, as a nation, have received 
"through me while I was abroad." 

On the same day we have a significant voice from the South. General 
Toombs, in response to a suggestion that Governors of various States and 
prominent Southern men should unite in congratulations to the e.x - President 
on his return, telegraphs in these words: "I decline to answer except to 
" say, I present my personal congratulations to General Grant on his safe 
"return to his country. He fought for his country honorably and won. I 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxiii. 

" fought for mine and lost. I am ready to try it over ! Death to the 
" Union ! " 

Here we have simply two representative utterances ; one is the voice of a 
solid North ; the other is, we fear, the voice of a South that is much more 
"solid" than we could wish. It is no marvel if, after a war of so many 
years, that cost so many lives and so much money, and left us to drag 
through ten years of a financial slough, loyal men are impatient and even 
angry, when they discover that the question is still an unsettled one, and that 
we have not even conquered a peace ! Even the interpretation now attached 
to this seditious utterance by General Toombs himself, that "the result of 
"war was death to the Union, and that the present government is a consoli- 
"dated one, not a confederacy," does not essentially relieve the matter. 

Mr. Chandler could not brook what he regarded as sentiments rendered 
doubly treasonable by the fact that a long, bitter but successful war had 
burned upon them with a hot iron the brand of treason. He fought those 
sentiments, and it was as under a black flag that announced "no quarter." 
But this does not prove malicious or vindictive feeling toward misguided men 
who hold such views. There is a difference between fighting a principle 
and fighting a person. In fact the only way to prevent fighting men is often 
a vigorous and timely opposition to their measures. And if we wish to 
avoid another war, and that a war of extermination, the ballot must obviate 
the necessity for the bullet : we must stand together, and by our voice and 
vote, by tongue and pen, by our laws and our acts, in the use of every 
keen weapon, exterminate the heresy of State Rights. We need not do this 
in hate toward the South : a true love even for the South demands it, for 
to them as to us it is a deadly foe to all true prosperity and national 
existence. How can a man who candidly looks upon the present attitude 
of the South as both suicidal and nationally destructive be calm and cool ? 
The philippics of Demosthenes were bitter, but they were the mighty beat- 
ings of a heart that pulsed with the patriotism that could not see liberty 
throttled without sounding a loud and indignant alarm. The North owes a 
big debt to every man who at this crisis will not suffer an imperilled 
republic to sleep. 

Mr. Chandler was not a college graduate. His early training was got in 
the New England common school and academy. Yet he was in a true sense 
an educated man : for education is "not a dead mass of accumulations," but 
self - development, "power to work with the brain," to use the hand in cun- 
ning and curious industries, to use the tongue in attractive and effective 
speech, to use the pen in wise, witty or weighty paragraphs. Somehow he 
had learned to hold, with a master hand, the reins of his own mind, and 
make his imagination and reason and memory and powers of speech obey his 
behests. That is no common acquirement : it is something beyond all mere 
acquirement ; it is the infallible sign and seal of culture. His addresses, even 
on critical occasions, were unwritten, and, in some cases, could not have been 



XXIV. Alr'Pj^lNDiA. 

elaborated, even in the mind ; yet in vigor of thought, logical continuity and 
consistenc}', accuracy of diction, and even rlictoricul grace, few public speakers 
equal tlieni. 

The power to command the popular ear is a rare power, whether it he a 
gift of nature or a grace of culture. With Mr. Chandler it was held and 
wielded as a native sceptre. He had the secret of rhetorical adaptation ; he 
could at once go down to the level of the, people and yet lift them to his 
level. They understood what he said and knew what he meant. He tlirew 
himself into their modes of thought and liabits of speech ; he culled his 
illustrations mainly from common life. If he sacrificed anything, it was 
rhetorical elegance, never force ; his one aim was to compel conviction. 

The simplicity of his diction was a prime element and secret of his power. 
He did not speak as one who had to say something, but as one who had 
something to say, and whose whole aim was to say it well ; with clearness, 
plainness, force and effect. If he could not have both weight and lustre, he 
would have weight. 

Walter Scott has exposed the absurdity of " writing down " to children, 
and shown that it is really writing up, to make oneself so simple as to be 
plain even to the child -mind. Simplicity is the highest art. To have thought 
faintly gloom and glimmer through obscure language, like stars through a 
haze or mist, may serve to impress the ignorant with a supposed profundity 
in the speaker ; but it is no more a sign of such profundity than muddy 
water signifies depth in a stream ; it may suggest depth because you can see 
no bottom, but it means shallowness ! It is a lesson that all of us may learn 
through the life of our departed Senator, that the first element of good speak- 
ing is thought ; and the second a form of words fitting the thought, which, 
like true dress, shall not call attention to itself but to the idea or conception 
which it clothes. Any man who is long to hold the ear of the people must 
give them facts and thoughts worth knowing and thinking of, in words which 
it will not take a walkmg dictionary or living encyclopajdia to interpret, or a 
philosopher to untangle from the skem of their confusion. 

Mr. Chandler was such a man, a man for the people. Free from all 
stately airs and stilted dignities, he took hold of every political and national 
question with ungloved hands. He understood and used the language of home 
life, which is the "universal dialect" of power. His speeches were packed 
with vigorous Saxon. He thought more of the short sword, with its sharp 
edge and keen point and close thrust, than of the scholar's laboied latinity, 
with its longer blade, even though it might also have a diamond - decked hilt; 
and in this, as in not a few other conspicuous traits, he was master of the 
best secrets that gave the great Irish agitator, O'Connell, his strange power 
of moving the multitude. His last speech, even when read, and wiihout 
the magnetism of his personal presence, may well stand as the last of his 
utterances. 

Tiie simplicity of Mr. Chandler's style of oratory amounted to ruggedness, 
in the .sense in wliich wc apply that word to the naked naturalness of a land 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxv. 

scape, whose features have not been too much modified b}' art. There is in 
oratory an excessive polish, wliich suggests coldness and deadness. Some 
speakers sharpen the blade until there is no blade left , the mistaken careful- 
ness of their culture brings everything to one dead level of faultlessness ; 
there is nothing to offend, and nothing to rouse and move. Demosthenes 
said that kinesis — not "action," but motion, or rather that which moves — is 
the first, second, third requisite of true oratory. He is no true speaker who 
simply pleases you : he must stir you to new thought, new choice, new 
action. 

We must beware of the polish that is a loss of power, and, like a lap> 
dary, not griml off points, but grind into points. Demosthenes was more 
rugged than Cicero ; but he pricked men more witli the point of his oratori- 
cal goad. Men heard the silver-tongued Roman and said, "How pleasantly 
he speaks'" They heard the bold Athenian and shouted, "Let us go and 
fight Philip ! " 

Carlyle says, "He is God's anointed king whose simple word can melt a 
million wills into his ! " That melting wills into his own is the test of 
eloquence in the orator ; and a rugged simplicity has held men in the very 
fire of the orator's ardor and fervor, till they were at white heat, and could be 
shaped at will ; while the most scholarly display of culture often leaves them 
unmoved, to gape and stare with wonder, as before the splendors of the 
Aurora Borealis, and feel as little real warmth. Emerson is right: "There is 
no true eloquence unless there is a man behind the speech," and men care not 
what the speech is if the man be not behind it, or, on the other hand, what 
the speech is, if the man be behind it ! And so it is that Richard Cobden 
compelled even Robert Peel, who loved truth and candor, to become a 
convert to his free - trade opinions ; and so it was that John Bright, another 
model of a simple utterance with a sincere man behind it, swayed such a 
mighty sceptre over the people of Britain. The mere declaimer or demagogue 
may win a temporary hearing ; but the man who leaves a lasting impress on 
the mind of the people must have in himself some real worth. 

To Mr. Chandler's executive ability reference has been made. It was 
never better illustrated than in his vigorous and faithful administration as 
Secretary of the Interior. It was Hercules in the Augean stables again — 
purging the department of incompetency and dishonesty. He sent a flood 
through the Patent Office, that swept all the clerks out of one room ; 
and another through the Indian Bureau, that cleaned out its abuses and 
exposed its frauds. It is said that the reconstruction of that department 
saved millions annually to the treasury of the nation. Mr. Schurz, in becom- 
ing his successor, paid a very handsome tribute to the retiring Secretary, 
acknowledging the greai debt of the country to Mr. Chandler's energy and 
fidelity, and modestly declaring that he could hope for no higher success than 
to keep and leave the department where he found it. 

If there be any one thing for which the Senator from Michigan stood 
above most men it was in this practical business ability. He had, in rave 



xxvi. APPENDIX. 

union, "lalent" and "tact." His good sense, clear views, ready and retentive 
memory, prompt decision, patience and perseverance, quicli discernment and 
instinctive perception of the fitness of ways to ends, qualified him for ener- 
,<i;etic and successful administration anywhere. Webster said, "There is always 
\f room at the to[)." Even the pyramid waits for the capstone, which must be, 
itself, a little pyramid. And he who has inborn or inbred fitness for the top 
place will find his way there ; no other will long stay there, even if some 
accident lifts him to the nominal occupancy of such a position. 

He had rare tact, that indefinable cpiality of which Ross says, that "it is 
the most exfjuisite thing in man." Literally it means "touch," and is sug- 
gested by the delicacy often found in that mysterious sense. It describes, 
though it cannot define, the nice, skillful, innate discernment and discrimina- 
tion which tells one what to say and do, even on critical occasions ; how to 
reach and "touch" men, when a blunder would be fatal. This wisdom of 
instinct may be cultivated but cannot be acquired ; and it seems to be close 
of kin with that common sense which, though by no means exceedingly 
"common," represents a sound intuitive sense in common matters, such as 
would be the common sense or verdict of wise and sagacious minds. 

The Senator impressed men as one whose powers were varied and versa- 
tile. Tiiomas F. Marshall, the " Kentucky orator," maintained that fine 
speaking, writing and conversatio'i depend on a different order of gifts. " A 
^ "speech cannot be reported, nor an essay spoken. Fox wrote speeches; 
"nobody reads them. Sir James Mackintosh spoke essays; nobody listened. 
"Yet England crowded to hear Fox, and reads Mackintosh. Lord Bolingbroke 
"excelled in all, the ablest orator, finest writer, most elegant drawing-room 
"gentleman in England." 

Whether or not this philosophy be souad and this estimate correct, we 
shall all agree that few men combine power of speech with force in composition 
and grace in conversation. Our departed Senator certainly had more than the 
common share of versatility. That last speech at Chicago thrilled a vast 
audience when spoken, and kindled a flaming enthusiasm ; yet it reads like 
the compact and complete sentences of the essayist. 

Versatility, however, is not to be coveted where it implies a lack of con- 
centration. An anonymous writer has left us a very discriminating comparison 
of two great British statesmen. He likens Canning's mind to a convex specu- 
lum which scattered its rays of light upon all objects ; while he likens 
Brougham's to a concave speculum which concentrated the rays upon one 
central, burning, focal point. There are some men who possess, to a consider- 
able degree, both the power to scatter and the power to gather the rays. At 
times they exhibit varied and versatile ability, they touch delicately and skill- 
fully many different themes or departments of thought and action ; but when 
crises arise which demand the whole man, they become in the best sense men 
of one idea, for one thought fills and fires the soul ; every power is concen- 
trated in one burning purpose. 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxvii. 

The Senator, whose deserved garland we are weaving, was one of these 
men. There were times when he seemed to turn his hand with equal ease to 
a score of employments ; now giving wise counsel in gravest matters, now 
playfully entertaining guests at his table ; now studying the deep philosophy of 
political economy, now holding a Senate in rapt attention ; now reorganizing 
a department of state ; now pushing a new measure through Congress ; now 
closeted with the President over the issues of a colossal campaign, and again 
conducting a pleasure excursion ; to - day leading on the hosts of a great 
party, and to-morrow managing the affairs of an extensive farm. But, when 
the destiny of the nation hung in the balance, or history waited with uplifted 
pen to record on her eternal scroll the final decision of some great question, 
he gathered and condensed into absolute unity all the powers of mind and 
heart and will, and flung the combined weight of his whole manhood into the 
trembling scale. When he felt that a thing must be, a mountain was no 
obstacle to surmount, a host of foes no occasion for dismay. With intensity 
of conviction, with contagious courage and enthusiasm, with indomitable 
resolution, with tireless energy of action, he went ahead, and weaker men had 
to follow ; his conviction persuaded the hesitating, his courage emboldened 
the timid, his determination inspired the irresolute. He was the unit that, in 
the leading place, makes even the cyphers sv/ell the sum of power. 

It is no slight praise of Mr. Chandler to say that he was a man of 
industry ; the results he reached were won by work. There is a great deal 
of blind talk about genius. That there is such a thing, apart from the prac- 
tical faculty of application, even great men have doubted or boldly denied ; 
but certain it is that there is such a thing as the genius of industry, and that 
rules the world ! Alexander Hamilton disclaimed any other genius than the 
profound study of a subject. He kept before him a theme which he meant to 
master, till he explored it in all its bearings and his mind was filled with it. 
Then, to quote his words, "the effort which I make the people are pleased 
to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought." 

And so for us all there is no royal road to a true success. We must 
simply plod on, along the plain, hard, plebeian path of honest toil, and climb 
up the hills, if we would get on and up at all. Spinoza grandly says that 
that there is no foe or barrier to progress like "self-conceit and the laziness 
which self-conceit begets." We venture to add that no conceit is surer to 
beget laziness than the conceit of " conscioiis genius." Our peril is to learn 
to do our work easily ; that means poor work, if indeed any work at all, 
shallow acquirements, superficial attainments, and no real scholarly or heroic 
achievements. 

Our regretted Senator did not despise honest work, and never claimed to 
be a genuis. He had a hearty contempt for all that aristocracy of intellect 
that frowns on mental toil. 

He spoke without manuscript, and without memorizuig ; or, as we say, 
^'extempore." That i-i another much -abused word. Extemporaneous speech 



xxviii. APPENDIX. 

is not the utterance of words that shake tlie world, or any considerable part 
of it, unless such speecli be the fruit not of that time, but, as Dr. Shedd 
says, ''of all time previous." But when the orator first becomes master of 
his theme and then of the occasion, and is thus fitted to deal with the real 
vital issues before the people, he may, without having put i)en to paper, or 
having framed a single sentence beforehand, often find himself master also 
of his audience. The careful study of his subject, the habit of thinking in 
words, and of weighing words when he reads and talks, scoops out a channel 
in the mind ; and when he rises to speak he finds his thought llowing natur- 
ally and easily in this channel. 

No man can carefully read Mr. Chandler's public utterances without 
detecting a brevity and terseness, a simplicity and plainness, an accuracy and 
vigor, and often a rhetorical beauty, which shew care in preparation. These 
qualities are not the offspring of indolence. Years of drill lie back of the 
exact and daring touches with which the artist makes the canvas speak and 
the marble breathe ; and the extempore speech of the eloquent orator tells of 
long, hard discipline that has taught him how to think and how to talk ; it 
may have taken him fifty years to learn how to hold and sway an audience 
at will for' fifty minutes. The ease and grace of true oratory are the signs of 
previous exertion ; of that .systematic exercise of the intellect that has sug- 
gested for our training schools the name, gymnasia. The laws of brain and 
of brawn do not differ much in this respect. Men are not born athletes, 
either in mind or muscle ; and to all who have a true desire to succeed, in 
any sphere of life, the one voice that, with the growing emphasis of the 
successive centuries, spe iks to us, is, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do 
it with thy might." Your sword may be short; "add a step to it!" it may 
be dull ; add force to the blow or the thrust. There is no encouragement 
from history, more universally to be appropriated by us, than the testimony 
she furnishes to the power and value of honest endeavor. To will and to 
work is to win. The highest endowments assure no achievements ; all success 
i.s the crown of patient toil ! 

While thus speaking a word in favor of hard work, one word of caution 
and of qualification may not be out of place. I think God means that the 
sudden decease of public men when m life's prime, shall not be without 
warning. No thoughtful man fails to feel the force of this fact that somehow 
the average duration of humin life, especially on these shores and among 
men of mark, is shorlening ; and that apoplexy, paralysis, angina pectoris, 
cerebral hemorrhage, and softening of the brain are amazmgly common among 
brain workers. The fatality among journalists is especially startling. 

We are a fast -living and a fast -dying people. Our habits are bad. We 
work hard half the time and worry the other half. We eat and sleep irregu- 
hirly ; we tax our powers unduly, keeping the bow bent until the string snaps 
smiply from constant tension, lack of relaxation. We turn night into liay, 
without restoring the balance by turning day into night. We live in an atmos 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxix. 

phere of excitement, and push on to the verge of death before we know our 
peril or realize our risk. We arc tempted to put stimulus in the place of 
strength, that we may do, under unnatural pressure, what we cannot do by- 
natures healthy powers. Instead of repairing the engine, we crowd fuel into 
the boiler and get up more steam ; and, by and by, something breaks, or 
bursts, and the machinery is a wreck. 

I believe it is not hard work that kills us, so much as work under wrong 
conditions. To do, with the aid of even mild stimulants, like tea and coffee, 
not to say tobacco, opium, quinine, etc., what we cannot do by the natural 
strength, is the worst kind of overwork ; and yet our public men are subject 
to such strain, that they are almost driven to such resorts. Where they ought 
to stop, and sleep and rest, they "key up" with a kind of artificial 
strength, and get the habit of unnatural wakefulness ; and then wonder why 
they are victims of insomnia. 

Professor Tyndall, one of the most tireless men of brain in our day, says 
to the students of University C^ollege, London : " Take care of your health ! 
" Imagine Hercules, as oarsman in a rotten boat ; what can he do there but, 
"by the very force of. his stroke, expedite the ruin of his craft! Take care 
"of the timbers of your boat !" And Dr. Beard adds : " To work hard with- 
" out overworking, to work without worrying, to do just enough without 
"doing too much -thess are the great problems of our future. Our earlier 
"Franklin taught us to combine industry with economy; our 'later Frank- 
"lin' taught us to combine industry with temperance; our future Franklin 
" — if one should arise — must teach us how to combine industry with the art 
" of taking it easy." 

The qualities that fitted Mr. Chandler for the conduct of affairs were, 
however, not purely intellectual ; they belonged in part to another and a 
higher order, viz. : the emotions and affections. 

He had great intensity of nature. Even his political opponents could not 
doubt the positiveness of . his conviction and the profoundness of his sincerity ; 
and here, as Carlyle justly says, must be found the base blocks in the struct- 
ure of all heroic character. It is no small thing to be able to command even 
from an antagonist the concession and confession of one's sincerity. Candor 
atones for a host of faults. Men will, at the last, forgive anything else in a 
man who tries to be true to his own convictions and to their interests. The 
utterances of impulse and even of passion, stinging sarcasm and biting ridicule, 
unjust charges and assaults, all are easy to p;irdon in one whose sincerity and 
intensity of conviction betray him into too great heat ; men would rather be 
scorched or singed a little in the burning flame of a passionate earnestness 
than freeze in the atmosphere of a human iceberg — beneath whose rhetorical 
brilliance they feel the chill of a cold, calculating insincerity and hypocri.sy 
that upsets their faith in human honesty. 

He was also peculiarly independent and intrepid. The determination to 
be loyal, both to his convictions and to his count.y, inspired him to a bold, 



XXX. APPENDIX. 

brave utterance and invested liim with a courage and confidence that were 
almost contagious. We cannot but admire the political fidelity expressed by 
Burke, in his famous defense before the electors of Bristol, when he said : " I 
"obeyed the instructions of nature and reason and conscience ; I maintained 
"your interests, as against your convictions." Few men have ever dared to 
say and do what Mr. Chandler has, in the face of such political risks and 
even such personal peril. One brief address delivered by him in the Senate, 
soon after he resumed his scat, will stand among the classics of our language, 
and, if I may so say, among the "heroics" of our history. 

lie was also a man of great political integrity. In the long career of a 
public life spanning more than a quarter of a century, no suspicion of dis- 
honesty or disloyalty has ever stained his character or reputation. ]\Iichigan 
may safely challenge any Senatorial record of twenty years to surpass his, 
either in the quantity or quality of public service. 

Those who knew him best affirm that he was, politically and personally, 
an incorruptible man. The position of a legislator is one of proverbial peril. 
From the days of Pericles and Augustus till now, the men who make laws 
and guide national affairs are peculiarly in danger of defiling their consciences 
by "fear or favor." Bribery sits in the vestibule of every law-making assem- 
bly. Greed holds out golden opportunity for getting enormous profits from 
unlawful or questionable schemes and investments. Ambition lifts her shining 
crown, and offers a throne of commanding influence if you will bow down 
and worship, or even make some slight concession in favor of, the devil. 
Only a little elasticity of conscience, a little blunting of the moral sense ; a 
little falsehood, or perjury, or treachery, under polite names ; a lending of 
one's name to doubtful schemes ; and there is a rich reward in gains to the 
purse and gratifications to the pride, which more than pay for the trifling 
loss of self-respect. And so not a few who go to Congress with unsullied 
reputation, come back smutched with their participation in "Credit Mobilier" 
and "Pacific Railroad" schemes, or any one of the thousand forms of fraud. 

So far as I know, Mr. Chandler has never been charged with complicity 
as to dishonest and disgraceful measures such as have sometimes made the 
very atmosphere of the Capitol a stench in the nostrils of the pure and good. 
His name does not stand on the pay-roU of Satan, but with the honored few 
whose eyes have never been blinded by a bribe and whose record has never 
been blotted with political dishonor. 

To have simply done one's duty is no mean victory. To stand — like the 
anvil beneath the blows of the hammer — and firmly resist the force of a 
repeated temptation is grand and heroic. To be venal is no venial fault ; no 
price which can be weighed in gold can pay a man for the sale of one ounce 
of his manliness. Conscience is a Samson, whose locks are easily shorn, but 
they never grow again ; whose eyes, once put out or scared with a hot iron, 
no prayer will restore. And men, as great and wise as Bacon, have like him 
been compelled to confess to their own meanness and the mercenary character 
of flu'ir virtue. 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxxi. 

One of the worst signs of the times is this corruptibility of popular 
leaders. One of the greatest of European journals moves like a weather- 
vane, just as the day's wind blows. Much of the best talent of Europe is for 
sale for or against despotism. Some of the most gifted men in the House of 
Lords are of plebeian birth, bought by the bribe of a title, as Harry 
Brougham himself was, when his great influence became a terror to the aris- 
tocracy ; and the Duke of Newcastle is said to have bought one - third of the 
House of Commons. There is scarce a measure, however infamous, that may 
not be pushed through our common councils and legislative bodies if the 
lobbyists are only "influential and numerous," and the money is only plenty 
enough. Let us give God thanks for every man in the community who is 
not on the auction block to be knocked down to the highest bidder. In these 
days of abounding fraud and falsehood, men are beginning to feel the value 
of simple honesty. We have, in our admiration of the genius of intellect, 
forgotten the genius of goodness, which has power to inspire men with hero- 
ism. Better to strengthen a few timid hearts in loyalty to principle than to 
have deserved the encomium of Augustus, who "found Rome brick, and left 
it marble." The Earl of Chatliam refused to keep a million pounds of gov- 
ernment funds in the bank and pocket the proceeds ; as Edmund Burke, on 
becoming paymaster - general, first of all introduced a bill for the reorganiza- 
tion of that department of public service, refusing to enrich himself, through 
the emoluments of that lucrative office, at public expense. 

No wonder George the Second should have said of such "honesty" that 
it is an "honor to human nature !" Such words were worthy of a king, but 
it is only a crowned head bowing to royal natures that need no crown to tell 
that they are kingly. The distinguished Hungarian exile will never be for- 
given for saying that he would praise anything and anybody to aid Hungary. 
There is an mstinct in the great heart of humanity which not even wicked- 
ness kills, that no quality is so fundamental to character as absolute loyalty 
to truth, it is the base -block of the whole structure; and great has been 
many a "fall,'' where there is no better foundation than the treacherous and 
shifting quicksands of what is called "policy," and which is to many the only 
standard of honesty. 

Mr. Chandler was known in politics as an enthusiastic and radical advo- 
cate of his party and its measures. It was not in him to do anj^thing by 
halves , and it is difficult to see why one may not as naturally be zealous in 
politics as in religion ; in fact, none are more likely to charge upon him parti- 
.sanshlp than those who in their attachment to the opposite party shew their 
own lack of moderation. 

It has been well said that religion demands "a faith, a polity and a 
party." The faith and the polity belong to it as necessary features; the party 
is that on which it depends for organization and onward movement. There 
is a philosophy, a political creed and economy, which are to the state what 
religion is to the church ; and no man can be a patriot without a political 



xxxii. APPENDIX. 

faith and polity and party-; though lie may stand alone, he represents all 
three. He may be m the largest sense a patriot, and adopt the sublime motto 
of Demosthenes, ' ' Not father, nor mother, but dear native land ! " yet his 
patriotism may compel him, as he looks at the matter of his country's inter- 
est, to take a position on the side of a political party, and to hold it in the 
face of ridicule and reproach and even of a pelting hail of hate. Others may 
not be wrong in their espousal of a dilferent political creed, but he is not 
wrong, but right, in his honest adherence to his. It is so in religion ; an 
honest, intelligent man is loyal to his own denomination, yet is he none the 
less, because of that, a Chiistian in the breadth of his charily. 

In fact, religion is not the only sphere where self-sacrifice, for duty and 
for conscience, may be pressed even to martyrdom. St. Ignatius, facing the 
wild beasts in the arena, calmly said, "lam grain of God; I must be 
ground between teeth of lions to make bread for God's people." That was 
the grand confession of a Christian martyr. Tell me, how much lower down 
in the scale of the heroic does he belong who, for the sake of the best good 
of a constituency blinded by pa.ssion or prejudice, like the great English 
statesman, consents to be hurled from his shrine as the idol of the people, 
and calmly says, "I am under no obligation to be popular, but I am under 
bonds to myself to be true ! " When Regulus refused to buy his own liberty 
and life, at the cost of Rome's disgrace, and persuaded the Senate to reject 
the very overtures which he was commissioned to convey, himself returning 
as his pledge re(iuired him if the negotiations were unsuccessful, and sur- 
rendering himself to the will of his enemies that Carthage might put him to 
death by slow torture, -it seems to me something like the martyr -spirit burned 
in that bosom. And, if there be nothing akin to moral martyrdom in bravely 
standing in one's place and boldly holding one's ground, advocating what one 
believes to be the only true creed in politics, and the only true policy for the 
country, in face of sneer and threat, daring the blade and the bullet, the 
open affront and the secret assault, for the sake of being true to one's self and 
to one's native land — if there be nothing sublime and heroic in all this, the 
verdict of reason is unsound. 

This lamented statesman had also a genial temper, which won for him a 
host of friends. Public men are prone to one of two extremes ; cither the 
hypocritical suavity of the demagogue, or the arbitrary bluntness and curtness 
of the despot. Some swing away from the fawning airs of the puppy, but it 
is toward the repulsive manners of the bear. The man who, as you tip your 
liat with a polite good morning, sweeps by, saying, "I haven't time," is too 
often the typical man of affairs, who thinks the quick dismission of appli- 
cants and intruders is the price of all energetic public service. It is said of 
the great French statesman. Richelieu, that he could say "No." so gracefully 
and winningly, that a man once became applicant for a position, upon which 
lie had not the least claim, just to hear the great Cardinal refuse. If com 
mon testimony may be trusted, Michigin's esteemed Senator seldom lost the 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxxiii. 

hearty cordiality and courtesy of his manaers, even under the fretting friction 
of public cares. 

I am tempted to add that, though a representative Republican, Mr. 
Chandler was, in the best sense, a democrat. He weighed a man according 
to the worth of his manhood. He could recognize true manliness beneath a 
black skin as well as a white one, and behind the rough dress of a poor man, 
as behind broadcloth ; and, because he was the friend of humanity and of 
human rights, you will lind some of his warmest friends among the common 
people and in the lower ranks. 

I think both justice and generosity demand that among the tributes we 
weave for him, there should be distinct and emphatic mention of this simplicity 
of character. He was a man among men. From the first, he had none of those 
assumptions of conscious superiority that mark the aristocrat. If anything, 
he was rather careless than careful of his dignity, and would sooner shock 
than mock the fastidious airs and tastes of those who prate about cultuie, or 
pride themselves on their "nobility." Fox quaintly -said, of the elder Pitt, 
that he ' ' fell up stairs " when he was elevated to the peerage. Many a man 
cannot stand going up higher. He becomes haughty, proud ; he affects dig- 
nity, he lords it over God's heritage, he becomes too big with conscious 
superiority. Like Jeshurun, he waxes fat and kicks. He falls up stairs, if not 
down. 

The warm, soft, genial side of Mr. Chandler's nature was unveiled in 
social life and most of all in the domestic circle. The play of his smile, the 
roar of his laughter, the delicacy and tenderness of his .sympathy, his stalwart 
defense of those whom he loved, the childlike traits that drew him to 
children and drew children to him, none appreciate as do those who knew 
liim best as friend, husband and father. The man of public affairs, he could 
lay one hand firmly on the helm of state, while with tlie other he fondly 
pressed his grandchildren to his bosom, or playfully roused them to childish 
glee. 

This aspect of his many-sided character makes his death an irreparable 
loss to his own household. Even the great grief of a nation cannot represent 
by its "extensity," the intensity of the more private sorrow that secludes 
itself from the public eye. He was, to those whom he specially loved, both 
a tower for strength, and a lover and friend for comfort and sympath}^ 
Those who were "at home" with him, and especially those who were the 
peculiar treasures of his heart, knew him as no others could. Happy is the 
minister who forgets not his parish at home — the church that is in his own 
house — and happy is the public man, whose private life is not simply the 
revelation of the hard, coarse and unattractive side of his character. 

That IS I am sure no ordinary occurrence, which has made forever memo- 
rable the Calends of this November. Death, however frequent and familiar 
by freciuency, can never, to the thoughtful, be an event of common magni- 
tude ; the exchange of worlds cannot be other than a most august experience. 



xxxiv. APPENDIX. 

But this death has about it colossal proportions ; it stands out and apart like 
a mountain in a landscape. It is recognized as a calamity not only to a 
houseliold, but to the city, the State, the Nation ; and it may be doubled 
whether, since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, any single announcement 
has so startled the public inind and moved the poi)u]ar heart as when on the 
1st day of November it was announced that Zachariah Chandler Avas found 
sleeping his last sleep. 

Ulysses S. Grant is a man of few words — and like his shot and slwll 
they weigh a good deal and are well aimed. Let us hear his verdict on Mr. 
Chandler : 

"A nation, as well as the State of Michigan, mourns the loss of one of 
" her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler was beloved 
"by liis associates and respected by those who disagreed with his political 
" views. The more closely I became connected with him the more I appre 
" elated his great merits. U. S. GRANT. 

"Galena, 111., Nov. 9, 1879." 

It is evident that it is no ordinary man who has departed from among 
us. It is not "a self-evident truth that all men are created equal," if we 
mean equality of gifts and graces, capacity, opportunity or even responsibility; 
and the people of these United States do not need to be told that Mr. Chand- 
ler was no common man. It was by no accident that he held in succession, 
and filled with success, posts of such importance and trusts of such magni- 
tude, lie did not drift into prominence ; he rose by sheer force of character 
and by the fitness of things. Born to be a leader, endowed with those quali- 
ties that mark a man destined to leadership, having rare business faculty, and 
sagacity, tact and talent, large capacity for organization and administration, 
his hand was naturally at the helm. 

Mr. Chandler's leadership reached beyond and beneath the visible conduct 
of affairs. As Moses was the inspiration, of which Aaron was the expression, 
he was often the power behind the throne. He who has now left us, forever, 
belonged to the illustrious few who were tlie special counselors of Mr. Lincoln 
and the instigators of many of his wisest and best measures There is an 
inner history of the war which has never been written and never will be. 
The lips that alone could disclose those secrets are fast closing in eternal 
silence, and the scroll will find no man worthy to loose its seals. 

Mr. Chandler could not have been wholly ignorant of the risk he ran in 
his laborious and prolonged campaign - work ; but when his country seemed in 
peril his tongue could not keep silence. Just before starting on his last jour- 
ney westward, he said to me: "la my judgment the crisis now upon us is 
"more important than any since Lee surrendered, and as grave as any since 
"Sumter was fired on." Tho.se who knew him best will not be surprised that, 
with such an impression of the magnitude of the issues now before the 
American people, he could not spare himself, but gave himself without reserve 
to his country, sacrificing his life itself on the altar of his own patriotism. 



THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN. xxxv. 

And so our stalwart statesman has fallen, and we have a new lesson on 
human mortality. Anaxagoras, when told that the Athenians had condemned 
him to die, calmly added, "And nature, them!" All our riches, honors, dig- 
nities cannot stay the steps of the great destroyer. The manliest and mightiest 
leaders, and the humblest and meanest followers bow alike to the awful man- 
date of death. And as Massilon said at the funeral of the Grand Monarch, 
' God only is great ! " 

Of how little consequence after all are all the things that perish. Tem- 
poral things derive all their true value from their connection with the invisible 
and eternal. How small will all appear as they recede into the dim distance 
at the dying hour and the world to come confronts us with its awful decisions 
of destiny ! What grandeur and glory are imparted to our humblest sphere 
of service, here, when touched and transformed by the power of an endless 
life ! 

We have reason to be glad that the popular recognition of Mr. Chandler's 
abilities and services has been so prompt and hearty as to afford him not a 
little satisfaction. Posthumous tributes are sometimes melancholy memorials, 
reminding us of the monumental sepulchres of martyr - prophets. 

Robert Burns's mother said about his monument, as she bitterly remem- 
bered how the poet of Ayr had been left to starve, "Ah, Robbie, ye asked 
them for bread and they hae ge'en ye a stane ! " It can never be said that 
our departed Senator had to wait for another generation to pronounce a just 
or generous verdict upon his career ; the trophies of victory and of popular 
esteem were strewn along the whole line of his march ; and his last tour of 
the Northwest was a perpetual ovation. 

There is to my mind no little inspiration of comfort in the fact that not 
even human malice can falsify history. Men sometimes get more than their 
share of praise or of blame while they live ; but sooner or later the cloud of 
incense or the mist of prejudice clears away and the real character is more 
plainly seen. We can afford to leave the final verdict to another generation 
if need be, grateful as it is to be appreciated by the generation which we 
seek to serve. 

But it is still more inspiring to know that God rules this world, and 
reigns over the affairs of men. If He marks the flight and the fall of the 
sparrow, we may be sure that no man rises to the seat of power or sinks to 
the grave without His permission. 

God is not dead, and cannot die. Generations pass away while He 
remains the same. His hand is on the helm, whatever human hand seems to 
have hold, and is still there when the most trusted helmsman relaxes his 
dying grasp. If God's hand is not in our history, all its records are mislead- 
ing, and all its course a mystery. Admit the divine factor, and, from the 
strange unveiling of this hidden Western world until this day, our national 
life appears like one colossal crystal ; it has unity, transparency and symmetry. 
We can understand Plymouth Rock, the revolution, the French and Indian 



APPENDIX. 



wars, the war of 1812, the great rebellion, the Kansas problem and the Cali- 
fornia problem, the Indian question and the Chinese (question, Romanism and 
Communism, Eastern conservatism and Western radicalism, the freedmen and 
the emigrant, svate rights and national sovereignty — all are the subordinate 
factors whose harmonizing, reconciling, assimilating factor is the divine pvn-- 
pose and plan in our history. My friends, the republic has a divine destiny 
to fulfill. The Great Pilot is steering the ship of state for her true haven. 
Scylla threatens on one side, Charbydis on the other ; but He knows the 
ciianncl. The stormy Euroclydon may strike her, tear her sails to tatters and 
snap lier ropes like burnt tow, and splinter her masts to fragments ; but He 
holds the winds in his fists. Let us not fear. We have only to love, trust 
and obey the God of our Fathers and He will guide us safely and surely 
through all darkness and danger. The sins that reproach our people are the 
only foes we have to fear ; the righteousness that exalts a nation the only ally 
we need to covet. If the people of Michigan would rear a grand monument 
to the heroic men who have adorned our history, let us be true to the princi- 
ples which they have defended, and to the God who gave them to us as His 
instruments. 

The Doric Pill.\r op Michioan has fallen ; but the State stand.s, and 
God can set another pillar in its place. There is stone in the quarry — col- 
umns are taking shape to - day in our homes and schools and churches ; and 
in God's time they shall be raised to their place. Let us only be sure that in 
the shrine of our nation God finds a throne, and not the idols of this world, 
and not even the earthquake shock shall shatter the symmetric structure of 
the Republic. 



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